Category Archives: Elections

Businesses Prohibited from Rewarding Voters

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PHOENIX – While the nation’s early politicians offered booze to entice voters, the practice of rewarding people for voting has been forbidden since the days when George Washington won election to the Virginia House of Burgesses with the help of alcohol.

Now, 256 years later, Arizona’s Secretary of State and Attorney General are reminding businesses it is illegal to offer anything of value to someone who has indicated he or she voted in an election.

“While we never want to discourage anyone from voting, it’s important to remind businesses to avoid rewarding people for performing their civic duty,” said Secretary Bennett. “Offering free coffee, hot dogs or anything else is prohibited and they could be found guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.”

“Our office fielded several calls last election cycle asking if businesses were allowed to ‘reward’ people who had ‘I Voted’ stickers by giving them something such as a free cup of coffee,” said Attorney General Tom Horne. “Although a gesture like that is not tied to voting for a particular candidate or ballot measure, it’s still against Arizona law.”

For the record, George Washington lost his first campaign to a candidate who provided “beer, whiskey, rum punch, and wine” in 1755. According to the book, Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry, our first President subsequently utilized the same strategy and was elected with more than eight times the votes. Cheers to our founding fathers!

Fred Duvall: No partental consent for abortion

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duvallFred Duvall, Speaking at the Redemption Church in Gilbert, stated that he is against parental consent for abortion. He stated that he was against consent because it gives the reproductive right to the parent instead of the “expectant mother.” Even for a child as young as 14-years-old.

Source: Daily Caller

Candidate for AZSOS misrepresents facts

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Arizona-electsPHOENIX – Candidates often make inflammatory statements as a tactic to provoke a sense of mistreatment to curry favor with voters. However, blatant mischaracterizations about Arizona’s system of elections must be corrected. With less than three weeks before the General Election, current Secretary of State Ken Bennett believes it’s necessary to clear up inaccurate information being presented by Terry Goddard over the past few months.

The latest examples occurred during the Clean Elections Debate, hosted by Arizona PBS. During the broadcast, Mr. Goddard made two statements that were either terribly ignorant or deliberate misrepresentations of the truth for political gain.

“I’m confused where Mr. Goddard came up with amount of $2 million to implement the so-called Dual Track, or bifurcated system of voting in the primary,” said Secretary Bennett. Truth is, our counties will spend about $500,000 for both the primary and general elections. This system—one that I’ve repeatedly said is not ideal for election officials—was developed in response to two conflicting directives. One from Arizona’s voters, (Prop. 200) and the U.S. Supreme Court (Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Ariz., Inc.) As I’ve publically said before, and I’ll ask Mr. Goddard, which directive should we ignore; Arizona’s voters or the Supreme Court?

“In addition, I’m troubled by Mr. Goddard’s characterization that students, ‘who have to vote a federal ballot, are treated as second class citizens,’ which is patently false and simply absurd. College students do not have to vote a federal form. Those voting a federal ballot are simply doing so because they haven’t provided proof-of-citizenship to our County Recorders, a requirement approved by voters in 2004. Election officials around the state are committed to treating each voter equally and for Mr. Goddard to assume otherwise is offensive to elections officials statewide.

“Combined with his conspiratorial accusation of voter suppression when he declared ‘independent voters get only one chance to cast a ballot,’ I question Mr. Goddard’s fundamental understanding of how elections work in Arizona. While I certainly appreciate Mr. Goddard’s compliment about my singing voice during the debate, I would ask he either learn the songs or stop making up the lyrics.”

Tampering with political signage a class 2 misdemeanor

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signs8Arizona Revised Statute 16-1019. Political signs; printed materials; tampering; classification

A. It is a class 2 misdemeanor for any person to knowingly remove, alter, deface or cover any political sign of any candidate for public office or knowingly remove, alter or deface any political mailers, handouts, flyers or other printed materials of a candidate that are delivered by hand to a residence for the period commencing forty-five days before a primary election and ending seven days after the general election.

B. This section does not apply to the removal, alteration, defacing or covering of a political sign or other printed materials by the candidate or the authorized agent of the candidate in support of whose election the sign was placed, by the owner or authorized agent of the owner of private property on which such signs are placed with or without permission of the owner or placed in violation of state law or county, city or town ordinance or regulation.

C. Notwithstanding any other statute, ordinance or regulation, a city, town or county of this state shall not remove, alter, deface or cover any political sign if the following conditions are met:

1. The sign is placed in a public right-of-way that is owned or controlled by that jurisdiction.

2. The sign supports or opposes a candidate for public office or it supports or opposes a ballot measure.

3. The sign is not placed in a location that is hazardous to public safety, obstructs clear vision in the area or interferes with the requirements of the Americans with disabilities act (42 United States Code sections 12101 through 12213 and 47 United States Code sections 225 and 611).

4. The sign has a maximum area of sixteen square feet, if the sign is located in an area zoned for residential use, or a maximum area of thirty-two square feet if the sign is located in any other area.

5. The sign contains the name and telephone number of the candidate or campaign committee contact person.

D. If the city, town or county deems that the placement of a political sign constitutes an emergency, the jurisdiction may immediately relocate the sign. The jurisdiction shall notify the candidate or campaign committee that placed the sign within twenty-four hours after the relocation. If a sign is placed in violation of subsection C and the placement is not deemed to constitute an emergency, the city, town or county may notify the candidate or campaign committee that placed the sign of the violation. If the sign remains in violation at least twenty-four hours after the jurisdiction notified the candidate or campaign committee, the jurisdiction may remove the sign. The jurisdiction shall contact the candidate or campaign committee contact and shall retain the sign for at least ten business days to allow the candidate or campaign committee to retrieve the sign without penalty.

E. A city, town or county employee acting within the scope of the employee’s employment is not liable for an injury caused by the failure to remove a sign pursuant to subsection D unless the employee intended to cause injury or was grossly negligent.

F. Subsection C does not apply to commercial tourism, commercial resort and hotel sign free zones as those zones are designated by municipalities. The total area of those zones shall not be larger than three square miles, and each zone shall be identified as a specific contiguous area where, by resolution of the municipal governing body, the municipality has determined that based on a predominance of commercial tourism, resort and hotel uses within the zone the placement of political signs within the rights-of-way in the zone will detract from the scenic and aesthetic appeal of the area within the zone and deter its appeal to tourists. Not more than two zones may be identified within a municipality.

G. A city, town or county may prohibit the installation of a sign on any structure owned by the jurisdiction.

H. Subsection C applies only during the period commencing sixty days before a primary election and ending fifteen days after the general election, except that for a sign for a candidate in a primary election who does not advance to the general election, the period ends fifteen days after the primary election.

I. This section does not apply to state highways or routes, or overpasses over those state highways or routes.

Arizona Republicans chide Kirkpatrick for flying Mexican flag

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ELOY – The Arizona GOP reported that the Ann Kirkpatrick flew a Mexican flag on her float at a parade in Eloy on September 13. Her tweet did not feature the flag prominently, but the Republicans added a photo showing the float with the flag.
Kirkpatricktweetflag-300x232640px-FOT9CF4
According to the Eloy Enterprise, the parade was part of a celebration called sponsored by a group called Corazon De Latinos Unidos which translates to Latino Heart of America.

According to the article:

Las Fiestas Patrias is an important festival celebrated throughout Mexico and Latino communities in the U.S., marking Mexico’s Independence Day. Las Fiestas Patrias, meaning “homeland celebration…”

It does seem inconsistent that while Kirkpatrick seems proud to wave the Mexican flag, she is not proud enough to tweet the fact. The homeland they are celebrating seems apparent with the absence of American flags.

The Maricopa County Republicans report that the Mayor of Eloy, Joe Nagy, has endorsed Andy Tobin to represent Congressional District 1.

Gary King makes totally non-racist remark about opponent

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Governor Martinez of New Mexico

Governor Martinez of New Mexico

NEW MEXICO – The Democratic candidate for the office of Governor of New Mexico is under fire for comments made at a private campaign function concerning incumbent Republican Governor Susanna Martinez. The non-racist Democrat Gary King stated that Governor Martinez “…does not have a Latino heart.”

While the Republican Governors Association is demanding an apology, Governor Martinez told KOAT in New Mexico:

I’m not sure what Gary King meant by what he said, so I’m not going to accuse him of racism.

King will not apologize stating that he was simply plagiarizing “labor leader” Dolores Huerta.

Main stream media, which appropriately jumped on the Mitt Romney 47% video, are fortunately silent on this non-racist non-issue. Mother Jones even went through the trouble of creating a total transcript of the entire “secret” video of Romney during his campaign event. They are silent on this video.

One poll shows that Governor Martinez may be re-elected for Governor of New Mexico, but a 2016 bid for the office of President of the United States is not likely.


Video from KOAT

SEE ALSO: New Mexico Gubernatorial Candidate Under Fire For Claiming Rival Susana Martinez ‘Does Not Have Latino Heart’

Colorado group seeks to define unborn as persons

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400px-Personhoodcolorado-header4COLORADO – Colorado residents have a chance to redefine prenatal life as a person in their Constitution. The amendment would change the definition of a “person” or “child” to include unborn human being. A group called Personhood Colorado collected 140,000 signatures to get Amendment 67 on the ballot for the November 4 election—53,895 signatures more than required. Previous attempts failed in Colorado in 2008 and 2010.

Amendment 67 is popularly known as The Brady Amendment. The name honors the son of Heather Surovik of Firestone, Colorado. Brady was killed when a drunk driver struck their car on July 5, 2012 while Heather was eight-months pregnant causing a miscarriage. The killing of Brady was not prosecuted because Colorado has no law to do so.

Colorado did pass a law in June of 2013 creating an offense for unlawful temination of a pregnancy with varying degrees. It did not, however, define prenatal life as a person as this amendment would do.

The ballot question reads:

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution protecting pregnant women and unborn children by defining “person” and “child” in the Colorado criminal code and the Colorado wrongful death act to include unborn human beings?

A rally was held in Denver with both sides of the issue demonstrating for their side.

Keith Mason, president of the pro-life ministry Personhood USA, referred to the Unborn Victims of Violence act signed into law by George Bush in 2004 stating that the federal law never led to bans on abortions or contraceptives.

Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, the executive director of the ACLU of Colorado countered, “Personhood USA are the same people who sponsored ballot amendments that the people of Colorado rejected in 2008 and 2010 — they’re being disingenuous if they say that this isn’t just another attempt to accomplish the same thing.”

The issue is so hotly contested that Republican candidates Mike Coffman and Cory Gardner have both dropped support for the Amendment.

Colorado Republican George Leing who was seeking a seat in the House also distanced himself from the amendment. The Denver Post blog quotes him as saying:

“Just as many Democrats seem unwilling to oppose some of the extreme elements of their party, too many Republicans have succumbed to personhood’ advocates,” Leing said in a news release. “If Republicans, including pro-life Republicans, are to win elections statewide in Colorado, they must stand up to these efforts.”

In an appearance on The Doctors, OB-GYN Jennifer Ashton stated, “Obstetrically the data is crystal-clear, at about 24-weeks, give or take a couple of weeks, that fetus is considered viable—which means it can survive outside the mother.”


Heather Surovik on the doctors (Posted February 21,2014).

The signs, they are a changin’

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signs5Signs for candidates are changing all across the land following the primary elections last week. All, that is, except for two.

signs8The signs for Andy Tobin and Gary Kiehne still remain as they still do not know which one to remove. Andy Tobin and Gary Kiehne are the Republican candidate vying for the chance to face Ann Kirkpatrick in Congressional District 1.

According to the office of the Secretary of State, 2508 ballots remain to be counted in Coconino and Yavapai Counties. Neither candidate is willing to relent as a mere 359 votes separate Kiehne from leader Andy Tobin.

Probably the main reason for the narrow margin is the fact that Adam Kwasman came across with a respectable 15,050 votes in his bid for the race in November. So far Tobin is standing at 18,438 to Kiehne’s 18,079.

The county offices were closed over the Labor day holiday so the outstanding ballots still remain. The results are required to be in the office of Secretary of State this Wednesday. The results remain unofficial until the final canvas of the office of Secretary of State scheduled for September 8.

sylvia-allen-facebook

Photo from Brenda Barton Facebook page


One new sign that appeared is for candidate Sylvia Allen who has officially been selected to replace the late Chester Crandell who passed away due to injuries in an accident on August 4. Sylvia Allen will run unopposed, barring a write-in candidate, for the Senate seat for legislative district 6.

Allen is a well-known conservative who is a strong supporter of State’s Tenth Amendment rights and the Second Amendment.