Monthly Archives: April 2023

Cochise County case brought by AZ AG in court

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The case brought by Arizona Attorney General Mayes will have a hearing in court Tuesday, April 18, 2023.  The litigation focuses on the Cochise County Board of Supervisors' decision to move certain election responsibilities from the county elections director, a hired position, to the county recorder, a partisan position.  The Arizona Secretary of State asked the state AG to sue on his behalf.

The case will be live-streamed by KGUN 9 Tucson via their Facebook page and website.  The case is scheduled for 1:30 PM.

More information in the Herald/Review.

 

Creating a partisan nomination petition

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Make sure you have the most recent PDF of the partisan nomination petition.  This should be available on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website https://azsos.gov/elections/candidates.
Note:  As of publication date of this post the website is under “transition” to Secretary of State Fontes.  Whatever that means.  The PDF of the petition does not seem to be online now.  Contact the SOS office at 602-542-4285 to have them send you a petition.
Below is an example of a partisan nomination petition with important elements highlighted.

Best practice:  Use a PDF editor to fill in all the boxes clearly with black font.  Make sure the Candidate Name is at least similar to your voter registration name and is probably the name that you would have appear on the ballot.  For example, my petition had Bob Karp while my voter registration name is Robert W. Karp.  Both would be fine and I used Bob Karp on all my signs.
 Address must be where you reside.  This is critical.  Don’t get fancy here and put down a PO Box because you don’t want people to know where you live.  If that is the only residence address you have, then you can use a PO Box.  If in doubt check with the AZ SOS.
Election to be had date is the date of the August 2024 PRIMARY election.  The example above has the date, but make sure you have verified the correct primary date for your race.  Spell out the month and put the full year.  This makes the date more readable and precise.
How about a photo?  Yes please, but don’t use a color one unless that is the best and only one you have.  Why waste color ink printing duplicate petitions?  (More on printing in a later post)
The PDF file you get from the AZ SOS or another source will also have a back side that must be included with the petition.   (Shown below)

How to print the petition.

Printing a blank nomination petitions

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Best practices

Once you have your filled in nomination petition (top portion) ready for circulation it's time to print copies.  Two simple ways to accomplish this:  print at your home or office using a inkjet or laser printer, or take it to a copy shop such as UPS store or Staples.  Either way make sure you follow these "best practices".

Printing from home or office

Print directly from the PDF of your nomination petition.  DO NOT MAKE copies from a printed petition.  While this may be OK for county or city petitions, it is not acceptable for state legislature and statewide offices.  In our current political environment where there are also sorts of challenges to petitions be safe, don't do it.  Making copies from copies reduces the size of the printed area each time you do it.  Some jurisdictions use special scanning software to process signed petitions.  (Unlikely in Cochise County, but possible)  Have your printer settings set to actual size rather than size to fit to make sure they petition printed image is not reduced.
Be sure to print the back side of the petition on each petition.  If you have a duplexing printer you can choose "print both sides of the paper".  It is critical that the circulator of the petition has both sides of the petition when they circulate.
The best was to ensure this to it print the back side of each petition.  This way you don't lose the back side of the petition when it goes to the campaign for validation and filing.  The law requires that the circulator fill out and sign the back side of the petition before they turn it in for it to be valid.
If you do not have a duplexing printer you can feed the petitions back through and print the back side.  Test that first to make sure you get the image on correctly.

Using a commercial copy store

They will usually print to a high volume copying machine rather than directly to a printer.  Make sure you ask them not to copy from a copy, only your original and have their machine set to 100% or actual size.

Election denier supported by David Stevens gets sanctioned by court

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Mark Finchem loses appeal to AZ Supreme Court

Cochise County Recorder, David Stevens has a direct connection with losing candidate for AZ Secretary of State, Mark Finchem.  Read more about Steven's connection with Finchem.

How to get your Letter to the Editor published

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Follow these tips

Read our post Letters to the Editor for information on why writing a LTE help get your message out to voters.
  • Keep it short.  Print newspapers have limited space, shorter is better.  Yes, longer content often lands on their website.  But focus on print first.  Readers like shorter and will tend to scan longer content.
  • Break it up with lots of paragraphs.  Not one sentence paragraphs.  More than three or four sentences is harder to read.  Have a single idea or argument in one paragraph and then move on.
  • Stay on topic.  A recent LTE that I commented on started off on election procedures and ended talking about socialism and inflation.  It got published, but don't push your luck.  Make your topic specific, a candidate, office holder, or an issue such as water rights in Cochise County.
  • Always include your name and city.  Most publications require it.  Be willing to have your name published.  Anonymous LTE do not have impact with readers.
  • Pay attention to publication restrictions on how often you can appear.  Many have a restriction that you cannot appear more than once every 30 days to allow different voices to get published.  Know what the restriction is and then hold your powder for a really important moment.
  •  Send your LTE to various publications and websites.  This is difficult in Cochise County where we have only one print newspaper publisher Heard/Review media.  But try going through there various online website to get your LTE published.
  • Keep a copy for yourself in text form (Word or Google Docs).  Not every LTE gets published but your ideas, arguments, and comments can be shared with others.  Use email to share with people in your club or group.  Get feedback and start a conversation.  Look for other online platforms, such as CochiseProject.com to get your thoughts published.
  • Proof read.  We all make typos, misspellings or "it's" instead of "its".  Editors don't want to spend time cleaning up your text.
  • Don't use profanity (it won't make it in), and avoid name-calling.

Letters to the editor (LTE)

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Old school in this digital era?

Does anyone read print newspapers anymore?  Why write a LTE?  To answer the second question think about the first question.  (Print) newspaper readership mirrors the change in demographics.  It used to be that I would say no one under 40 reads a newspaper anymore.  Now it's probably 50 and maybe even higher.  Look in any residential neighborhood in Sierra Vista in the morning.  How many driveways have a newspaper on them?  Yes, people buy newspapers at Frys or Safeway, or maybe at a minimart.  One just needs to be realistic about whom you are reaching.
Ok, so who is that?  Older, engaged in their community, readers of longer content, educated - most likely some or all of these attributes.   What don't we know about them?  Their politics.  Does it matter?  No.  They vote in greater numbers than any other group.
Answering the why write question - because reaching any voter in Cochise County is a good thing that you want to do when you are making a political statement, argument for or against a candidate or office holder.  A LTE reaches voters without any cost.  Free advertising!
Read our post How to get your Letter to the Editor published for more information