Today I received a letter from the Pima County, AZ Recorder's office notifying me that they had attempted to send mail to my address which had been returned as undeliverable, so they are going to remove me from the active voter registration rolls unless I respond immediately. This notice, however, reached me easily.
Let me just say this about that:
I registered to vote as a Democrat on my 18th birthday with all the pride and anticipation of a 16 year old applying for a license to drive. I had been working in the elections process for Democratic candidates since I was 14 years old. I was already an active member of Young Democrats, an activity I continued all of my adult life until I reached the upper age limit.
Since that hot July day, I cannot recall a moment of my life when I was not registered to vote, and I cannot recall a major election in which I did not exercise that right. I have worked in voter registration drives, I have worked in voter education efforts, I worked on the Election Protection effort in the last presidential election. Comprehensive voter registration is important, vital-and overwhelmingly favors Democrats, because the majority of the population holds Democratic values.
In 2003 I moved to Arizona and became a stunned, unbelieving witness to every type of attempt to legalize voter intimidation that I have ever seen or could have dreamed up. Prop 200, Voter challenges,dirty tricks, sending police cars to park in front of the polls at Sam Lena Library, whatever-when you let Republicans take charge of anything it becomes a free for all. I have done my part to fight this, to protect voters.
This letter says that I must now fill out a form within ten days to prove that I still live at this address, otherwise, they will pull my registration. I can obtain a form in a number of places, including their office.
You can bet your sweet ass that I will be there with bells on at 9:00 a.m. Monday morning to address their concerns about the validity of my voter registration. Because I am just as passionate about this as I was at age 18.
If you know anyone who lives in Arizona, please take a moment to call or email them to tip them off that they may be getting purged from the voter rolls, especially if they're a Democrat. Tell them to treat any piece of mail from the county recorder's office with the same urgency that they regard the tax bill.
Cause the games and dirty tricks have started early this time.
