voting – Pima Post

5Oct

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Q&A with ‘Vote Here’ filmmaker Steve Waxman

By Joe Giddens This Q&A was originally made for a Tucson Weekly Story available here: https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2020/10/02/tucson-filmmakers-highlight-the-history-of-voting-in-new-documentary Filmmaker Steve Waxman has released his new documentary, "Vote Here", to inspire voter turnout this year and provide some historical insights into political movements wanting to engage the youth vote. What was the inspiration for this project? I just felt that voting is the essence of democracy and I've always been big on voting. I felt that this country, if it had a little bit more of a civic background on the evolution of voting, might understand the sacrifices other people made and realize that the more people who participate, the more people who decide. What was the p...

Upholding Democracy in a Crisis

Photo courtesy Michael Stokes, Flickr By Kevin Hartung Whether states are enforcing their shelter-in-place stances or candidates have deferred to the advice of social distancing, canvassing, stump speeches, town halls, debates, primaries and campaigns have taken a hit in this election cycle. The CDC now recommends that gatherings instead be turned into virtual events. “Events of any size should only be continued if they can be carried out with adherence to guidelines for protecting vulnerable populations, hand hygiene, and social distancing,” the CDC said. “When feasible, organizers could modify events to be virtual.” The president’s Coronavirus Guidelines advised all Americans to avoid groups of more than 10 and urged older people to stay at home altogether in a set of new guidelines. Po...

Letter from the editor- Felony disenfranchisement

By NORA THOMPSON Could you imagine having to pay $700 to register to vote? No one would do it. Voting, a civil right available to most U.S. reidents, suddenly would become a luxury. This is a devastating reality for 221,000 people in Arizona. Just as Manny Mejias said during the Restore Your Vote press conference on Oct. 3: It’s like bringing back the poll tax. America has a long history of voter suppression. It’s unfortunately a racist system that we live under, especially when, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections, 60.9 percent of inmates are non-white. I got involved with Restore Your Vote Arizona, a project of the Campaign Legal Center. It’s a two-month campaign that’s focused on helping people with prior felony convictions get their rights returned. It’s current...