Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

It’s tough to give a poll worker your street address when you don’t live on a traditional street, but that’s just one of the challenges that Native American voters who live on a reservation can face.

When Arizona voters go to the polls next week, it will be at 212 fewer polling places than in 2012, with 13 of the state’s 15 counties cutting sites in that time, a new report shows.

Coconino County officials have sent somebody down to the Havasupai Indian Reservation – a tribe of about 450 people living on the southwest region of the Grand Canyon for every major election since 1968.

Arizona tribal members have received more than $175 million in the first four years of a federal program to buy back and consolidate parcels of land that are now split between multiple owners, the Interior Department said on November 1.

Phoenix was held up as a model for the nation during a conference call on November 2 by transit officials pushing for approval of about $200 billion in transit projects on local ballots across the country next week.

Secretary of State Michele Reagan is urging lawmakers to enact regulations on “petition blocking,” a practice in which people hire away needed signature-gatherers in order to undermine an initiative campaign.

Vance Phillips and Tasya Peterson were impressed with the popularity of a Fox News tweet featuring the indictment of Rep. Ceci Velasquez on charges related to food stamp fraud.

A state employee of 22 years was fired from the Department of Economic Security and branded an “idiot” by Director Tim Jeffries after objecting to a news report shared with agency staff that the employee felt was purely political in nature.

Gary Phillips’ case was one of several involving publicized arrests of DES employees, including one in which the agency may have unlawfully disclosed the name of an employee who was a food stamp recipient.

Arizona residents can expect to see the largest rate increases in the nation when open enrollment for Obamacare begins next week, but advocates say those increases should be offset by similarly large increases in tax credits for consumers.