by admin | Oct 7, 2021 | News and Updates, Tax
Arizona taxpayers have had good reason to celebrate over the past few months. Not only did Republicans deliver historic tax cuts earlier this year, but the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Prop 208 is unconstitutional.
This should be a time of rejoicing for the people of Arizona who will get some much-needed relief while still trying to recover from COVID shutdowns.
But the backers of Prop 208 won’t give up. They are angry and upset that their unconstitutional tax hike was struck down. Now, their latest move is to target the $1.8 billion tax cut that would establish a flat tax and provide a tax cut to all Arizonans.
Last week, Invest in Arizona, a political committee sponsored by the Arizona Education Association and Stand for Children, submitted a referendum to put the historic tax cuts on the ballot for voters to decide its fate.
And not surprisingly, this effort has a few similarities to last year’s Prop 208 campaign.
Let’s start with the signature collection effort, which was bought and paid for by the teachers’ union and Stand for Children. During the final weeks of their signature collection campaign, these two special interest groups flooded the streets with hundreds of paid circulators in an attempt to buy their way onto the ballot. In total, they employed 619 paid circulators, many of which likely have criminal records and were not properly registered with the Secretary of State.
Then, there’s the lies.
In the case of Prop 208, voters were consistently lied to about how the tax wouldn’t affect small businesses. But it did, which resulted in several small businesses leaving the state.
And the lies didn’t stop there. Prop 208 backers also said that the tax did not try to skirt the constitutional expenditure limitation. Thankfully, this lie ultimately doomed the measure in the Arizona Supreme Court.
Now, with this referendum, the lies continue.
Invest in Arizona is telling voters that the legislature cut education funding, which is blatantly false. Conservative leaders passed the historic $1.8 billion tax cut while spending a record high amount for education with hundreds of millions in new funding for K-12 and universities.
And to top it all off, Invest in Arizona is telling the people of Arizona that signing the referendum will restore over $1 billion in education funding. But this is a total lie! The referendum has nothing to do with education!
More than likely, this entire effort is just as unconstitutional as Prop 208. That’s why the Club filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of referring the tax cuts to the ballot. Right now, our case is currently awaiting a hearing in Superior Court, and we are optimistic that it has a high chance of success.
After all, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has decided to remain neutral, despite being named in the lawsuit. And Attorney General Mark Brnovich field a motion for leave, along with an amicus brief urging the court to rule in our favor.
But regardless of what happens at the Superior Court, we are committed to pursuing our legal challenge all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, if necessary. And as the process for reviewing the validity of the referendum signatures begins, you can rest assured knowing that the Club will be watching to ensure that all illegal and fraudulent signatures are removed from the petition total.
Invest in Arizona may not like it, but the people have already spoken. The tax reform package was voted on and approved by 90 lawmakers who were duly elected by the people of Arizona. And it was signed by Governor Ducey who was also duly elected by the people or Arizona. That means it should be here to stay.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Oct 1, 2021 | Elections, News and Updates
Easy to vote and hard to cheat. That should be the benchmark for every single election we have.
Voters should not have to choose between having a secure election or having an accessible election. They can have both. And in Arizona, we’ve certainly made our elections accessible.
But that hasn’t always been the case with the security of our elections. And the results of the Arizona audit issued in September show just that.
These are significant issues that need to be addressed. Thankfully, the audit report made multiple recommendations that are common-sense election integrity policies.
And the most important one is something we’ve been saying for years:
Mail-in voting should incorporate an objective standard of verification for early voter identification, similar to the ID requirements required for in person voting.
Yes. The Arizona audit recommended instituting universal ID. And that’s why right now is the perfect time for the Arizonans for Voter ID Act.
This initiative for the November 2022 ballot would:
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- Improve existing in-person voter ID.
- Establish voter ID for mail-in ballots.
- Deter ballot harvesting by enhancing voter ID requirements.
- Provide a FREE voter ID option to lawfully registered Arizona voters who need it for voting.
Think about what this would mean for future elections. For one, we would no longer need to rely on a highly subjective process to verify signatures, which can often lead to illegal votes being counted and legal votes not being counted.
In addition, this initiative would make it nearly impossible for someone to vote in our state after they had moved.
And to top it all off, requiring universal voter ID would not be cumbersome.
The people of Arizona already provide basic identification in their daily lives to purchase alcohol or cigarettes, obtain a driver’s license, board a commercial flight, donate blood, open a bank account, purchase a firearm, receive unemployment benefits, obtain auto insurance, purchase or rent a home, and more.
It’s commonsense that we should we require the same for something as important as voting in an election. Thankfully, most Arizonans agree.
Statewide polling from earlier this year shows that an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters support voter ID requirements. In fact, every race and ethnicity support voter ID, along with the majority of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.
Now, the audit’s recommendation makes it clear. It’s time for universal voter ID in Arizona. It would ensure that our elections are still easy to vote in while making it that much harder to cheat. And that’s something every single resident in Arizona should be able to get behind.
You Can Make a Difference
Elections should be both accessible and secure. That’s why universal voter ID is so important. We must protect the ballot of every qualified Arizona voter and ensure the integrity of our elections.
Find out more about this initiative and what YOU can do to ensure it makes it onto the November 2022 ballot.
by admin | Sep 30, 2021 | Elections, News and Updates
The much anticipated audit report has finally been released, and it has proven to not be a disappointment for those seeking an in-depth look at election security and potential fraud in Maricopa County.
Unsurprisingly, the establishment media spent little time actually reviewing the 90-page report, instead focusing on the Presidential recount figures showing Biden still winning Maricopa County.
This lazy analysis ignored the more critical aspects of the audit, including the real, substantive findings that identified legitimate issues with our election process and a comprehensive list of election reform recommendations.
The audit recommendations are not based upon wild conspiracies, as the left and corporate media might want you to believe. Instead, they are measured, reasonable, common-sense election integrity policies that will ensure that every legal vote is properly counted. In fact, most of the recommended reforms from the audit are election law changes that the Free Enterprise Club has been urging lawmakers to adopt for years. We knew these were critical before—the audit findings confirm and show the necessity of them.
So, what are the most critical election integrity reforms recommended by the audit?
In-Person Voters Moved Prior to Registration Deadline
Among the most concerning findings is that potentially 2,382 voters moved out of Maricopa County prior to the registration deadline yet they still cast a ballot in-person. The audit team relied on data provided by Maricopa County and compared it with best-in-class commercial data to find individuals who moved before the election but appear on the voted list provided by the county.
Because the data indicating voters moved is third-party, commercial data, this might not be perfectly accurate. That’s why further investigation by the Attorney General is warranted. But it is important to highlight that this is in-person voting, not vote by mail. All systems have vulnerabilities and front-end security is most effective in limiting fraudulent and illegal voting.
Recommendation: Voter Roll Maintenance
To that end, the audit team recommended changes to laws regulating voter registration maintenance. Specifically, comparing the voter rolls to the National Change of Address database both 90 days before an election and a week prior to early ballots being mailed to check for individuals who have left the state along with regular voter roll maintenance.
Doing this would help ensure that only qualified electors, which requires residence in the county, would be on voter rolls at the polls preventing unqualified electors from casting a ballot. This is an issue The Club pushed to reform last session with SB1106 which was sponsored by Senator Mesnard and would have required counties to cancel voter registrations for individuals who register to vote in another jurisdiction.
Mail-In Voters Moved Prior to Ballots Being Sent
In the same vein, the audit team found 23,344 mail-in ballots potentially cast from voters who had moved prior to October 5th, when ballots were first mailed. The majority of these, 15,035, were moves within Maricopa County, but a total of 6,591 were from voters who moved out of the state prior to October 5th, and 1,718 moved to another county in Arizona.
State law does not allow these ballots to be forwarded. There is a mechanism for voters to make a one-time request for a ballot at a different address, but this volume of ballots being sent to individuals who had moved—especially the 6,591 who moved to another state—and were cast and counted is more than concerning.
Recommendation: Early Voting List and Voter Roll Maintenance
As with the last, the audit team recommends more comprehensive voter roll maintenance. Ensuring only lawful, qualified electors are registered and on the voter rolls is one of the best deterrents of fraud and illegal voting. Doing a check against different databases 90 days before an election and a week prior to ballots being mailed will ensure that ballots are not being mailed to voters who are no longer qualified and sent to addresses where they no longer live.
Ballot Affidavits Missing Signatures
The last area deserving spotlight is the initial review of the mail-in ballot affidavits, more recognizable to voters as the envelope where they sign. The Club has supported an in-depth look at these from the beginning, and this first review confirms the need to look even further.
EchoMail, who was contracted by the Senate a few weeks ago to conduct the first look, analyzed the images of ballot envelopes provided by Maricopa County. They came up with a count of verification ready affidavits that was 9,589 ballots fewer than what Maricopa County reported in the official canvass.
This is because they received over 17,322 duplicate envelopes, found 1,919 lacking a signature (compared to Maricopa’s report of 1,455), and another 2,580 with “scribbles.” EchoMail was provided with 1,929,240 affidavits, bringing the total that were ready for signature verification to 1,907,419 compared to Maricopa County’s tally of 1,917,008 that was reported as ready for verification.
Recommendation: Universal Voter ID (Audit Report Supports Voter ID Ballot Initiative)
Unfortunately, EchoMail wasn’t contracted to analyze signatures to audit the performance and accuracy of the county’s process. But the major discrepancy between Maricopa County and the Audit Team is unsurprising.
The process used to verify signatures is highly subjective which makes it an inconsistent measure of identity verification which can lead to both illegal votes being counted, and legal votes not being counted. Rightly so, the audit team recommended reforms that require mail-in ballot affidavits include objective identification requirements like those required for individuals voting in person.
This would mean a universal voter ID requirement in Arizona, something that 82% or Arizona voters support. And it is exactly what the Arizonans for Voter ID Act ballot initiative would do—ensure that no matter when you vote, where you vote, or how you vote, identification will be required. It was filed well before the report was released because it is good and commonsense election integrity policy. Now the audit team, after spending months analyzing the election, recommends it and bolsters its necessity.
Additional Findings
These aren’t the only three issues. The audit report details election data that was potentially deleted the night before the County commissioned review of Dominion machines, for which the team recommends legislation for better chain of custody for data and ensuring unique login credentials for everyone who has access to it.
The report also finds that potentially 9,041 more ballots were returned than received by voters, 5,295 voters who potentially voted in multiple counties, a 1,551 discrepancy between votes in the canvass and voters in the county’s final “voted” file, and 86,391 voters who voted but cannot be found in the commercial data source used, among others.
The Path Forward
The county has responded to many of these, but they should be fully investigated by the Attorney General as suggested in Senate President Karen Fann’s letter to Brnovich which included all of the reports and related data for launching an official investigation.
Additionally, the importance of front-end security in our election processes is more apparent than ever. Potential fraud and illegal voting were found with both in-person and mail-in voting. The best deterrent and prevention for both is strong ID requirements and clean and current voter rolls.
These recommendations were repeated throughout the report and are reforms that the Club has supported for years. The Governor and lawmakers should convene a Special Session to pass these legislative recommendations and others made by the audit team.
If they can’t do that, they must come into the Regular Session in January ready to quickly craft and pass these into law in time for the 2022 elections. Voters want a system that is accessible and safeguarded from fraud—where it is easy to vote, and hard to cheat. This report and its recommendations confirm we can maintain our accessibility while making reforms to ensure better security.
You Can Make a Difference
Elections should be both accessible and secure. That’s why universal voter ID is so important. We must protect the ballot of every qualified Arizona voter and ensure the integrity of our elections.
Find out more about this initiative and what YOU can do to ensure it makes it onto the November 2022 ballot.
by admin | Sep 23, 2021 | News and Updates, Tax
What would you do with $3.5 trillion? It’s hard to even wrap your head around how big that number is, isn’t it?
But think of it this way. 1 billion seconds is equal to 30 years, which is around the length of a career. But 1 trillion seconds? That’s equal to 30,000 years, which is longer than human civilization!
It’s a ridiculously big number, and yet, our government regularly throws around trillions of dollars like it’s nothing. But someone is paying for it, and you can probably guess who that is. That’s why the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion tax bill is especially concerning.
But it’s not even just about the money. It’s what the Democrats are trying to ram through in this giant bill.
Every Liberal Cause You Can Think Of
Because this package is a budget reconciliation, it could pass through the Senate with a slim majority, meaning that not a single Republican would need to sign on. And this has Democrats licking their chops. Among the lowlights of this bill are:
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- A National Energy Tax. Democrats are looking for backdoor ways to tax American families and advance the Green New Deal, similar to what our Corporation Commission has been trying to do here in Arizona. Hidden within this $3.5 trillion bill is a “methane fee,” which would impose a new tax on natural gas. If it passes, families across the country should expect their monthly energy bills to rise with virtually no environmental benefit.
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- Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants. We currently have a crisis at the border with one Arizona sheriff fearing a “perfect storm.” And when Vice President Kamala Harris outlined the Biden administration’s amnesty plan on Univision, more than 7,000 immigrants from Honduras started making their way to the U.S. Imagine what would happen if this amnesty plan now becomes reality.
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- Universal Pre-K and Free Community College. This is just what we need, right? More government-funded education. It’s bad enough that public school districts turned their backs on parents and students during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as part of this bill, they’ll now take on universal pre-k, so they can start indoctrinating children even earlier. Factor in free community college, which basically expands high school to six years, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Largest Piece of Legislation Ever
Not only would this $3.5 trillion bill be the largest tax increase since 1968, but it would be the largest piece of legislation in the history of the world. So naturally, Nancy Pelosi and others from the Left are trying to rush it through Congress.
Thankfully, some Democrats are pushing back, including Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who’s concerned about such a high price tag—as well she should be.
The American people are still reeling from government shutdowns and other economic losses that occurred during the pandemic. And with our national debt currently sitting at $28.4 trillion, adding more to that debt would be dangerous.
Kyrsten Sinema and other moderate Democrats need to continue speaking up and oppose this tax bill. Because if it passes, it could destroy the United States as we know it.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Sep 17, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
It felt like we were heading this direction for quite some time. Well, here we are. Last week, President Biden made an outrageous announcement. Any employer that has 100 or more employees will be required to mandate vaccines. Not only is this a blatant abuse of power, but it ignores the fact that issues like this are supposed to be left to states.
And Arizona’s lawmakers, who were elected by the people, did address this back in July, taking keep steps to protect our state from more COVID overreach. In particular, the state legislature passed SB1819, which includes a provision that amends the ability of the state to require vaccination during a public health emergency to allow for an individual to refuse vaccination based on their personal beliefs.
But apparently, our president—or is he our king now—does not care one bit about your freedom or personal choice.
Instead, King Biden would rather maneuver around the U.S. Constitution and use the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to establish this ridiculous “emergency workplace safety rule.”
Remember when this was just about “flattening the curve”? It wasn’t that long ago.
And it also wasn’t that long ago when then-Senator Kamala Harris said she would not take the vaccine if President Trump mandated it. This administration can’t even get its own talking points straight. Or maybe that’s just something else they don’t care about.
But there is something they do want: to take away more of your freedoms. That’s why the Arizona Free Enterprise Club jumped into action immediately. For the past week, we’ve been urging Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to sue the Biden administration. This vaccine mandate will affect more than 100 million Americans. And it is one of the most extreme infringements on both businesses and individual rights in U.S. history.
No free people should ever be compelled by force of government into certain medical decisions they disagree with.
Thankfully, earlier this week, Brnovich did take action, making Arizona the first state to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the unconstitutional vaccine mandate.
While this is an important step, it’s not enough. We need to do more to fight this.
That’s why the Club is now urging the Arizona state legislature and Governor Ducey to call a special session. And during that session, it’s essential that our lawmakers do two things:
- Protect any company from liability for not complying with the vaccine mandate, along with the assurance that Attorney General Brnovich will defend them.
- Ensure that the State of Arizona will pay any fines enforced against employers who do not comply with the mandate.
Vaccines should always be voluntary and never be forced, which is why our lawmakers cannot afford to wait. By protecting Arizona’s companies, they can give these businesses the fuel they need to stand strong against the Biden administration. And they’ll show the people of Arizona that there are some elected leaders who do care about their freedom and personal choice.
Stand Against Biden’s Vaccine Mandates — Sign the Petition Now!
Governor Ducey and Arizona’s legislators MUST fight back to protect Arizonans from Biden’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL vaccine mandates! And it’s critical that they hear from YOU. No free people should ever be compelled by force of government into certain medical decisions they disagree with.
By signing this petition, you will send a direct message to Arizona’s lawmakers that you want them to act immediately against Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandates by calling a special session to protect Arizona’s employers and employees. You can do so instantly by using the button below. (The process is simple and secure. And it will only take a minute of your time.)
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