U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case that challenges an Alabama redistricting map and could potentially eliminate remaining federal safeguards against racial gerrymandering, further weakening the Voting Rights Act. Read more»
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Arizona’s newly drawn congressional and legislative maps are officially in use this election cycle and still a cause of concern for advocates because they could dilute the voting power of Indigenous people in the 2022 midterm election. Read more»
Many cities and states say the 2020 census wildly underestimated their residents, costing them significant money for the social services and infrastructure their areas need - and while the Census Bureau has created programs to fix the errors, many say they are not sufficient. Read more»
Once people realized an Arizona bill the legislature unanimously approved eliminated elections for precinct committeemen, activists began hounding Republican lawmakers to reverse course - on the other side of the aisle, Democratic lawmakers say they’ve heard few, if any, complaints. Read more»
The retroactivity clause that House and Senate GOP lawmakers are pinning their hopes on to restore elections for party activists this year won’t actually put those races back on the ballot, according to the Arizona Association of Counties. Read more»
A perfect storm of pandemic-induced delays in the census, unintended consequences from multiple years’ worth of legislation and an unconventional legal interpretation by the secretary of state created a problem that triggered a change to the law that has enraged the GOP’s activist base. Read more»
A pair of bills that would restore elections for precinct committeemen, who are the voting members of a political party’s legislative district-level organizations, face an uncertain fate amid Democratic opposition after lawmakers rushed the bill that eliminated PC elections for 2022. Read more»
Legislation approves last week intended to standardize the number of signatures candidates need to get their names on the ballot also included another provision that makes drastic changes for selecting precinct committeemen - what the GOP is calling unintentional drafting errors. Read more»
On the eve of the turn-in period for candidates’ nominating petitions, Arizona lawmakers fast-tracked a bill to clear up confusion over how many signatures legislative candidates need to qualify for the 2022 ballot. Read more»
A proposal that would have taken the power to fill legislative vacancies from county boards of supervisors and give it exclusively to political party activists fell short in the Arizona Senate after two Republicans opposed it. Read more»
When the next Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission convenes in 2031, it might be drawing 90 single-member House districts instead of 30 districts with two representatives apiece, at least if Sen. J.D. Mesnard has any say over it. Read more»
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs will be breaking the law if she shuts down the system that allows congressional and legislative candidates to collect signatures online so they can qualify for the ballot, the Attorney General’s Office warned Tuesday. Read more»
The AIRC proposed a host of major changes to the latest iterations of its congressional and legislative districts at a day-long meeting in Phoenix on Friday, and will hold meetings every day this week except Friday as it attempts to meet a Oct. 27 deadline to approve its draft maps. Read more»
The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is in the process of creating new boundaries for the state’s 9 congressional and 30 legislative districts - the state is depending on them to take into consideration its entire population and not be overly biased towards any group. Read more»