Ted Simons sits down with Adrian Fontes, Democrat and Maricopa County Recorder, and Cathy Stewart, Vice President of National Development to discuss the effort to get Democrats to include independents in the party's Presidential Preference Election.
View the segment which aired September 19, 2019, HERE.
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September 5, 2019 |
Sarah Lyons: 917-658-9885 |
Provocative New Campaign Ad Featuring Wounded Veteran Highlights How One-Third of Arizona Voters Will Be Denied the Right to Vote Next Year
Without Rule Change, 33% of AZ’s Independent Voters
will be Excluded from the 2020 Presidential Primary
An explosive new television ad launches today to highlight the plight of Arizona’s 1.27 million independent voters, who are denied the right to vote in the 2020 presidential primary. The 30-second spot, created by the award-winning Salt & Lime Agency based in Phoenix, features a veteran turned away from the polls because of arcane rules that lock out independents. It calls attention to the fact that currently, one third of Arizona voters will be denied the right to vote in the presidential primary because they are registered as independents with no party.
Read moreIndependent voters in Arizona have sent letters to each presidential candidate outlining the looming voting rights injustice in which one third of the state’s voters will be denied the right to vote in the primary election because they are independents.
The letter notes that independents are permitted to vote in every other primary and general election held in Arizona and that exclusion from voting in the Democratic Presidential Preference Election is “punitive and arbitrary.” It also states that the “exclusion can be corrected by simple action of the Arizona Democratic Party.
The letter was signed by independent voting activists in Arizona and a representative of Independent Voting, a national association of independents with organization in 40 states.
It reads:
Dear _______:
On March 17, 2020 the Arizona Democratic Party will hold its presidential primary, known as the Presidential Preference Election (“PPE”). The Arizona Republican Party has closed ranks behind Donald Trump and decided not to hold a primary. However, as currently designed, the Democratic PPE will exclude fully one third (34%) of the state’s electorate from participating. These voters (1,267,340 as of July 1, 2019) are registered independents. As you may be aware, independents are permitted to vote in every other primary and general election held in Arizona. Thus, their exclusion from voting in the Democratic Presidential Preference Election is punitive and arbitrary. The good news is that this exclusion can be corrected by a simple action of the Arizona Democratic Party.
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