Arizona Latino Research Enterprise

Political Empowerment Outcomes and Action Plan: Educating the Public on New Voting Requirements as a Result of Proposition 200

During the 2005 Town Hall, panelists from the Secretary of State's office, the Maricopa and Pinal County Attorney's office and others, discussed the new legal requirements for voting in Arizona as a result of the passing of Proposition 200.

The primary concern for most participants is that without a photo identification verifying a citizen's residence as the same place of voting registration, and one additional form of identification, citizens will be provided with a provisional ballot at the polls and be given a time-frame in which they must prove they are registered to vote in their voting district.

There was a tremendous amount of concern expressed that many citizens will not be aware of this law change and will be forced to vote with a provisional ballot, and that if they do not prove their place of residence within the specific time-frame, their vote will not count.

ALRE Action Plan

ALRE is currently teaming up throughout the state with County Supervisors, various County Election's offices, the Secretary of State's Office, and many others to do statewide Voter Community Forums to educate the public on these new voting requirements in Arizona. These forums will:

Be conducted statewide in Maricopa, Yuma, Pinal and other counties;
Work with County Attorney offices, County Supervisors, AARP, PORA and other organizations that may be disproportionately affected;
Provide forums and written information for voters on the new legal voting requirements; and,
Encourage other informational forums be conducted throughout the state.

Our goal is to educate as many citizens in Arizona about the changing voting requirements and mitigate the potential backlog of provisional ballots.

Education Outcomes and Action Plan: Improving High School Transition

During the 2005 Town Hall, ALRE participants discussed various issues with regard to education, in particular, how to improve the transition from grade school to high school.

ALRE Action Plan

Approach the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) to inquire whether they will proactively approach their membership about eliminating the practice of an 8th grade graduation, or
Ask ASBA if they will support legislation to require school boards to eliminate the practice of an 8th grade graduation
Develop a public relations campaign targeted toward both youth and parents, emphasizing the importance of continuing education.
Work with ASBA to determine whether upon completion of 8th grade, high school advisors can come to the school to meet with students and parents to celebrate the next phase of their journey.

ALRE Long-Term Strategy

We see eliminating the 8th grade graduation tradition as one part of a larger agenda to improve public education in Arizona. We expect to engage in other foundational issues facing Arizona's public school system such as school finance and raising academic standards.

We are beginning with eliminating 8th grade graduation because we see it as the first step in not only changing the organization structure of Arizona's public school system but in changing our collective mindset about how we view education as a community. Once accomplished, we stand ready to undertake and achieve other vital issues.

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