 NEWS FROM THE COCONINO COUNTY DEMOCRATS November 13, 2024 We reach out to you in these times of disappointment and, for many of us, fear. The Coconino County Democrats persist, though, and intend to persist as voices for community, democracy, and the America we envisioned. Read on for news you can use as we move ahead.  Dear Defenders of Democracy, Thank you for the tremendous work you all did for this election. Coconino County is a bright blue light, and we will continue to serve our community with all the resources and grit we can muster. Together we added to the 983 volunteers who knocked on 20,096 doors and engaged in 8,713 conversations with our Ballot Guide in hand, made 210,703 calls, and helped run the office of the Northern Arizona Coordinated Campaign. I am so proud of the work we did, and so grateful I got to do it with the Coconino County Democratic Party. And we elected Ruben Gallego to the Senate and passed Proposition 139! More than 90 people attended our monthly Action Meeting on Saturday. Fifteen signed up for the Ballot Cure. Many of you stepped up to volunteer for the work ahead, and I am heartened by your courage and strength. When you are ready, remember that we are not powerless and there is work to be done. We had a radically different vision for our Country, and we gave it everything we had to make it a reality. My goal is to continue building relationships with voters across our County, expanding opportunities for communication and leadership. The Coconino County Democratic Party remains committed to protect and support marginalized communities, who stand to be the hardest hit by the next administration’s policies. We are collecting gently used or new Large and XL Men’s coats and winter outerwear, including new wool socks. Bring them to the last Monthly Action Meeting of 2024, December 14, at the Murdoch Center. Onward, Laura Carter |
| Attention – Calling All PC’s from LD7! The Legislative District 7 Committee (AZ LD7 Democrats) will hold its statutory organizing meeting on Thursday, November 21, beginning at 6:00 pm, on Zoom. There will be an informal ice-breaker and workshop beginning at 5:30 pm for participants who wish to learn more about the process and/or share their ideas for moving forward. Here is the Zoom link to participate in the meeting: https://zoom.us/j/95584147556 At the November 21 meeting, elected PCs from Coconino, Gila, Navajo, and Pinal Counties who reside in LD7 will elect the LD7 Committee’s leadership for the next two years, including the Chair, four Vice Chairs (one position allocated to each of the four counties in LD7), Secretary, Treasurer, and Treasurer Pro Tem (Assistant Treasurer). Only elected PCs may nominate a candidate for these positions. The candidate must be an elected PC. Only elected PCs may vote in this election. The elected PCs from each county will also meet in separate breakout rooms to elect State Committee Members. Only elected PCs are eligible to participate in these elections. The Arizona Democratic Party determines the number of State Committee Member slots available to be filled based upon allotting each county one State Committee Member slot for every three elected PCs in that county residing in LD7. Fractional shares revert to the relevant County Party; however, unfilled LD7 State Committee Member positions remain allotted to the LD7 Committee, fillable by appointment at a later date upon the joint request of the LD7 Chair and the relevant County Party Chair. Elected PCs who are not able to attend the November 21 organizing meeting may give a proxy to another elected PC from their own precinct for purposes of voting on LD7 Committee officers and State Committee Members. If you will be absent but wish to be considered for an elected officer position or to become an elected State Committee Member, you must give written consent to election as an officer and/or as a State Committee Member. An email to Marie Sansone () designating your proxy and/or consent to election to a specified position or positions will be sufficient. Please attend and join us in moving ahead. Thank You to Our Wonderful Team of Voter Protection Volunteers! The election is in our rear-view mirror, and while we are enormously disappointed with the results, we know that election officials, poll workers, and community volunteers all collaborated to ensure a free, fair, and transparent election here in Coconino County. I am especially grateful to the dozens of you who volunteered to participate in our voter protection efforts. Some signed up and went through training and credentialing to be poll observers: watching voters and poll workers at various Vote Centers and precinct polling locations spread across our enormous county, for half-day or full-day shifts. Many others took half-day shifts in our County Recorder’s Office, watching signature verification and processing of many thousands of early ballots, and listening to Recorder’s staff members assisting early in-person voters and callers. And still others spent hours in the County’s Elections Center, watching the tabulation of ballots, the duplication of ballots that could not be read by the tabulation machines, and the state-required hand audit of randomly selected batches of ballots. Beginning on October 21 and continuing through this week, Coconino Democrats stepped up in a major way for all of these voter protection roles: 43 people signed up for poll observing; 23 different people covered at least 42 shifts in the Recorder’s Office; and 11 different people covered 30 (and counting) shifts in the Elections Center. Remarkably, there were even more people who wanted to take on one of these roles, but could not for various reasons. Our community truly stepped up to the challenge. Free, fair, and transparent elections are core to American democracy. We all owe thanks to these voter protection volunteers, and I personally salute you all for your generous efforts. — Laura Huenneke, Voter Protection Coordinator Local Governments Seeking Community Input on Long-term Plans While most of us have been focused on our national and state elections, we should remember the importance of local government in so many arenas. We all retain many ways of participating beyond voting – providing input and perspective on policies that shape our daily lives. Two current opportunities for this input exist right here and now in Coconino County. Flagstaff has spent many months shepherding both technical and community teams through the drafting of the next Regional Plan. This sets the stage for so many community decisions over the next decade, both in the City and in the neighboring parts of the County like Doney Park and Kachina (the Metropolitan Planning Area). Now that draft plan is available for a 60-day public comment period. The home page for the planning effort is here: https://flagstaff-regional-plan-2045-flagstaff.hub.arcgis.com/ You will find comprehensive resources and background about how the plan has been developed – perusing some of that background will be helpful so that you are not coming at the document completely cold. Go to this link to find the Draft Plan itself and to add your comments and feedback: bit.ly/RPpublicreview We have until December 19 to provide input. Coconino County is in an earlier stage of revising the Comprehensive Plan – a document that will influence land use and county interaction with private landowners over the next 10 years. County planning staff spent several months collecting public input on vision, values, and priorities. They also developed community profiles for many of the local places, towns, and communities across our diverse county; these make for fascinating reading if you want some context about Doney Park, Williams, or Leupp (among many others). A citizens’ advisory group is meeting monthly to review and provide input to the chapters and to the planning goals and priority actions based on each chapter topic. You can attend these meetings (in person or virtually), and are invited to provide your own comments and input on a draft chapter or on a particular topic. Chapter topics range from “Resilience, Energy, and Climate” to “Diverse Cultures and Community Character.” In early 2025 the County anticipates releasing more complete drafts for formal public review, before the County Board of Supervisors (check) adopts. Use this link to view the background community profiles, the feedback that shaped the vision and values underlying the plan, the draft chapters, schedule, and more: https://coconinocounty.konveio.com/envision2045 Why Do Arizona’s Election Results Take So Long? As of this writing (Monday, November 11), the election is not over in Arizona, not even in Coconino County. Many of you are wondering – why does Arizona take so long to finalize its election results? One primary cause is our heavy reliance on early/mail-in ballots, especially those that are turned in on Election Day itself. All those “late earlies” still have to go through the rigorous signature verification process before the envelopes are opened and the ballots removed and sent to be counted. Because so many people wait to complete and submit their ballots on Election Day, there is a tremendous workload after Election Day to process all of those votes. And if anyone failed to sign their ballot envelope, or if there is a problem with that signature, then they have a few days to “cure” that ballot before it is either counted or rejected. That is a big part of what we are working through now. The other big cause of the delay is the number of provisional ballots that are slowly being checked and, in some cases, cured. Provisional ballots (and conditional provisionals) are those voted in person on Election Day when something about the voter’s registration or ID could not be confirmed there at the polling place. Perhaps the voter arrived without full ID, or perhaps they could not be found in the County’s voter registration database. Again, the state allows a few days for these issues to be “cured” – the voter can provide proof of identification or of address, perhaps. Unfortunately, many people do vote provisional ballots but are truly not registered in the County – in that case their ballot cannot be accepted and it won’t be counted. But it will have taken a lot of time and work on the part of poll workers and Recorder’s Office workers (and maybe volunteers who are calling or visiting voters) to get to that certainty. This year the curing period is supposed to end on Sunday, November 10 – and election workers have worked all weekend on the ballot processing and curing efforts. But at this moment many thousands of ballots across the state remain to be verified or cured and then counted. And the ACLU (among others) has filed a lawsuit asking for at least a few more days for this backlog to be reduced, so that more voters can have their votes counted. Each County files reports every day or so with the Arizona Secretary of State, providing updates on the numbers of ballots remaining in the various stages of verification and counting. You can find this updated report at this link: https://apps.arizona.vote/electioninfo/BPS/47/0 By the time you read this newsletter on Wednesday, November 13, we will hope for Coconino County to have reached 100 % of verified ballots counted (we are already at 97.5 %). And we will know whether, due to legal action, there is still ballot curing going on to reduce the number of uncounted ballots in Maricopa County and elsewhere. If you have family or friends questioning why we are so slow, now you can explain. And if you are inclined, you might get involved in communicating to the state legislature whether you would prefer different election systems going forward – such as proposals to eliminate “late earlies” from being dropped off on Election Day, or Election Day registration which would vastly reduce provisionals. There are many alternatives in other states that Arizona might want to explore and adopt – as citizens and voters, you have a right to push your legislators if you are dissatisfied with our current system. Join Us in Our Community Service Work This Fall Sign up on our Volunteer Worksheet to help with our own activities – see link below. Volunteer Signup Sheet! As we move into the post-election stage of the cycle, we renew a focus on building relationships and serving our community. This link below will take you to a spreadsheet where you can learn about all of our events and sign up for those you’d like to help with. The tabs at the bottom are by month; click on DECEMBER if you’d like to see what we have going that month. Each sheet then presents all of the events for that month, from serving dinner at the Flagstaff Family Food Center, to collecting and organizing warm clothing or firewood. Put your name and contact information into the sheet where you’d like to help; no need to email or call or click Submit, because the sheet will be updated and your information will be visible to the organizer as soon as you sign up. Thanks for being part of the fun and the great work we are doing this year! Volunteer Signup |
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