Gallardo: HB2305 unnecessary, election problems could be solved with leftover HAVA money

Several provisions of HB2305 were drafted in direct response to problems in the 2012 election, when it took 11 days to call a close congressional race and an all-time high number of voters were forced to cast provisional ballots.

Arizona’s top lawman and elections official are joining with the the architect of SB1070 to force a commission to put Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement on federal voter registration forms.

In the first of two widely-anticipated voting rights decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court this month, the justices struck down Arizona’s voter-imposed law requiring residents to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.

House Speaker Andy Tobin is dropping his proposed resolution to send Medicaid expansion to the voters, and will deal with the issue in the Legislature, one way or another.

Faith Mendoza is a 17-year-old honor student from Chandler who spent hundreds of hours through the 2012 election walking the streets, registering voters and then picking up early ballots from people who otherwise might not have voted.

By most accounts, she is a model citizen. But if SB1003 passes through the Legislature in its present form and is signed by the governor, continuing her volunteer work in Arizona would make her a felon.

The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that a 2010 state law allowing school districts to spend unused bond money without asking voters is unconstitutional.

The state Supreme Court says parts of a proposal to transform Arizona's primary election system fit together as one proposal and didn't have to be kept off the November ballot.

In the wake of Arizona’s 2012 general election, which was marred by large numbers of uncounted ballots holding up the decision in one congressional district race for 11 days, Secretary of State Ken Bennett said the election system isn’t broken. But he still wants to fix it.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett today pledged to pursue changes to the state’s election system to avoid the drawn out vote counting and increase in provisional ballots seen in this year’s election.

Despite anxiety about Election Day suppression of minority voters, virtually none of the problems materialized.