A bit of good news in case you missed it.

[lonestarnot]

The following memo from PDA Member and AZ House Representative Ted Downing:


SB1557 passed the House of Representatives with a 51-0 vote! Then, it immediately passed the Senate 25 to 3! It is now on its way to our Good Governor's desk. As planned, it includes the Paton Amendment that I helped draft (see Star description below). Karen Osborn, the Maricopa County Election's Director calls this one of the most significant election reform bills in decades.

This bill is an emergency measure establishing a process for hand counting and auditing certain ballots and the development of procedures to reduce voter wait time at the polls. It establishes the Vote Count verification Committee to determine a designated margin of error for the hand counts.

This election reform bill is the result of three years of working with the Pima County Democratic Party and the great work of Dr. Tom Ryan, Bill Risner, Esq., our current and former Pima County Democratic Party Chairs, and many, many more dedicated individuals. I want to specially thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your hard work ,and your support in working for election integrity.

Now focus on the Governor to make certain that she signs it right away. I am confident she will. It will become law upon her signature, since it contains an emergency provision. We still must await Department of Justice approval..which should be expedited because of the emergency provision. At that point, hand counts will no longer be illegal and we will have a first-level audit of the election system. This is, however, just the beginning.

Politics is a team effort. As hard as it may be for many to accept, the East-Mesa Republican Senator Karen Johnson merits "thank you" emails, [e-mail], as does Karen Osborne, [e-mail] [phone], and yes, Brad Nelson, [e-mail] [phone]. Even Rep. Russell Pearce [e-mail] should be thanked.yes, that's right and I know its hard, but he fought to assure that our elections are fair. We will continue to disagree on almost every other issue, but he wants a fair count.

I hope each PC will take the time next year to come up to visit the Legislature and witness your legislature at work. Those of you who have tell me that it is not what they imagined.

You are true patriots.protecting our system of government just as those brave men and women did at the founding of this great nation. Thank you and bless you.



Ted Downing
State Representative LD28
[e-mail]
Capitol 602-926-5108
Toll free 800-352-8494 ext 6-5108
Capitol fax [phone]

[NMDemDist2]

1. excellent news! now how do we get this to be the standard for other states

:shrug:

you should cross post this into the Elections forum too! :bounce:

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

2. It was in Election Reform before it was posted here.

Looks like the good Governor hasn't yet signed it.

Praise be to anyone, Democrat or Republican, who went for this bill.

I about fainted when I saw the margins it passed by.

Seems it has to be approved by the Federales, but hopefully with bipartisan support, this will happen.

[blondeatlast]

3. EXCELLENT!

This is the kind of legislation we need nationwide.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

4. Governor Napolitano signed it yesterday June 28!!!

bill details, status signed found at the bottom of the page:

http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/47leg/2r/bills/sb1557o.asp