Campaign for Community Change

Slipping into the late hours of Tuesday night, it looks like Arizona voters will approve Propositions 100, 102, 103 and 300 by significant margins. While disappointed in the election results, we're eager to compare the voter turnout with the work we've done in southern Arizona. We'll have a summary of our analysis available in coming days. We're proud of our canvassers and volunteers who put a ton of passion and work into this campaign. We're proud of our program. Perhaps more time and more resources could have made a greater difference, but we know we had an impact on the final results in our targeted precincts. Click here for the results.

Some Arizona precincts felt more like the wild west on November 7. Here in Pima County, two of our canvassers assisted MALDEF in surveying voters to assess the impact of Proposition 200 voter identification requirements. In Precinct 49 in Tucson, they ran into much more. Anti-immigrant vigilantes brazenly intimated Latino voters outside of the polling site. An article ran in the Arizona Republic briefly describing what happened.

Polls Open from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM TODAY!

The following web site is a link to polling locations in Pima County. Click here and enter your address and it will give you the location where you can vote.

Four anti-immigrant ballot measures will be voted on today, and their fate will hinge on the number of people who make it to the polls and vote. It's too important not to vote. If Proposition 300 passes, the citizen children of hard-working parents may be denied child care, promising young adults who grew up in Arizona and aspire to college will be denied their dreams and immigrants seeking to improve their English language skills will be disenrolled from Arizona's adult basic education programs.

Last night Campaign for Community Change canvassers joined thousands of Tucson residents in the All Souls Procession, an annual event honoring the dead. We marched with our banner amidts skeletons, costumed marchers and enormous puppets. In the process we handed out at least 1,000 flyers to friendly onlookers and participants and urged folks to "Vote on November 7th" and to "Take a stand for immigrants."

Election Day in Arizona will be a day of questions, not just around the voting results, but also, how many people will be denied their basic voting rights because of mistakes or problematic activities at the polls.

As more folks sign the pledge, we're getting some great comments in support of our campaign. Here is one that I particularly enjoyed.

The Big Walk went great. Canvassers and volunteers gathered at Himmel Park Saturday morning to kick off one last push of door knocking to reach out to as many registered voters as possible days before the November election. I've attached some photos. The first photo is of City Councilman Jose Ibarra, his wife and staff with one of our volunteers. Councilman Ibarra's presence was a great boost to the cause. The second photo is of a canvasser being interviewed by a camera team from Univision for a newscast that played later that night.

New American Media placed the following column I wrote on their web site on Thursday. It describes what it is we're trying to do and what is truly at stake for immigrant and other communities in Arizona. In the end, "In the toxic anti-immigrant political environment of Arizona...

On Saturday, November 4, dozens of volunteers will gather in Himmell Park in Tucson to hit the streets and talk to their neighbors about why we all need to vote against Propositions 100, 102, 103 and 300. Our goal is to reach out to 2,000 registered voters in one day. It's going to be a great and exciting event. Please come out and join us. You can click here to get more information. Hope to see you there!