A Program of the Arizona Independent Voter’s Network (AIVN)
2024 may be the year in which we have the most significant opportunity in a quarter century to improve the quality of governance in Arizona. Why? Because we have a chance to erase arbitrary barriers imposed by the two major parties on Independent Voters and candidates.
2024 will be a pivotal year in Arizona politics, especially for Independent Voters. Many close elections in recent years have been decided by Independent Voters. The 2022 Attorney General’s race was decided by 280 votes out of more than two and a half million ballots cast. And, for the first time ever in Arizona, we have an Independent candidate running for Congress: Clint Smith in Congressional District 5 (CD5). AIVN will provide fact-based information to help Independent Voters decide who will represent them in 2025 and beyond.
How can Independent Voters have the greatest impact?
- First, by staying informed.
- Second, by changing Arizona’s partisan election laws.
These changes are possible if enough Independent Voters weigh in at the ballot box in November 2024. Today, more Arizona voters are registered as “no party preferred” than for either of the major parties. They are joined by some registered Democrats and Republicans who chose to vote independently regardless of their party affiliation.
Outstanding citizen organizations—Save Democracy Arizona and Voter Choice Arizona—are collaborating on a two-pronged strategy for getting fair election laws in place and preventing the Legislature from intervening to retain the current partisan system. Voters should also expect that we will have to defend these changes in law from the inevitable court challenges by partisan interests. These efforts involve:
- Removing arbitrary barriers in our election system that put Independent Voters and candidates at a disadvantage.
- Blocking Legislative attempts to keep those barriers in place.
A mountain of valuable information is available on the websites listed below in the “Key Organizations” table. AIVN will highlight evolving information and seek to tie related information together so that each voter in our Network—we call ourselves Networkers—can keep track of important issues and events with reasonable ease.
We applaud these endeavors and believe they will serve all Arizonans well when they succeed. This leaves our third priority for 2024:
Sharing information within targeted districts about issues that matter to Independent Voters and about credible candidates, like Clint Smith running for Congress in CD 5.
Why is AIVN building a network of Independent Arizona Voters committed to equal rights for all voters and candidates? Three reasons:
- America—and Arizona—desperately need problem solving leaders.
- Independent voters can help elect them, especially if voting obstacles are removed.
- We can start to make a difference now.
How do we build the Network of informed Independent Voters?
AIVN is a 501(h) nonprofit organization; we are not a Political Action Committee (PAC) nor a campaign organization for candidates or initiatives. We won’t ever tell you how to vote. We believe that we are all co-owners of our State and Federal Constitutions. We have seen a pattern of partisan control and a move away from accountability and representative government. We have seen proof that as few as 280 votes can make a difference. What we offer is:
- Concise, honest voter information.
- Focus on the strongest opportunities to make our election processes fair and representative.
- A forum for collaboration by Networkers that requires minimal organizational overhead.
- Clear distinction between opinion and nonpartisan information empowering Independent Voters; and
- A place for you to participate and contribute as an AIVN Networker where you control your time
A Real World Example of Collaboration
One of the recent Arizona election reform issues involved how to deal with Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), a device gaining increased attention and implementation in some states. The Make Elections Fair Arizona initiative places final resolution of RCV in the hands of the Legislature, but with clear guidance in the Constitutional amendment.
A competing RCV initiative effort by Voter Choice Arizona has been put on hold, but the
organization plans to focus its attention on any legislative effort to prohibit RCV and maintain our current partisan primary system. If both of the initiatives had moved forward, voters would have been asked to choose between initiatives. That may have caused voter confusion or even resulted in the failure of both, or passage of both leading to implementation challenges.
AIVN has been reporting on the two initiatives through this evolution, regardless of differing opinions within our core group. We will continue to report on the initiative effort leading up to the 2024 election. This is what we mean by respecting the voter.
Commitment
You can’t understand the ballgame if you don’t know the players. Here they are in alphabetical order. They all play critical roles. Along with innumerable other purely informational sources (we currently track over twenty), these voices are the ones we will tune into most often. It is critical to understand the nature of each entity in this constellation of organizations, in part because AIVN is committed to build upon, not duplicate, the positive endeavors reflected in this listing.
Why does this matter so much?
A crucial reality is that Arizona, as a key “swing state” on the National stage, has this unusually robust and well organized array of leaders who seek to improve governance in our State by serving the voting public with outstanding information and relentless attention to improved voting rights. Beneficiaries include, but are certainly not limited to, Independent Voters. Impacts of these endeavors will be felt far beyond the fraught 2024 election cycle. AIVN is grateful for this confluence of serious leaders attending to the needs of our State as we confront unprecedented discord roiling our democratic republic.
Please use the links below to get much more information and greater detail from these
sources. Our observations do not imply concurrence by the organization involved; they
are quite capable of speaking for themselves.
Key Organizations Influencing Arizona Election Reform in 2024
Arizona State Legislature
Basic function: Establishes our Arizona laws
azleg.gov
Observations:
Highly divided.
Thin Republican dominance in House and Senate.
Tension with Democratic Governor.
Republican opposition to open primaries and other reforms.
Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy
Basic function: Promotes broad public understanding of and support for increased voting rights in Arizona. Provides quality related research and analysis.
spa.asu.edu
Observations:
Affiliated with Arizona State University.
Already conducting important research.
Leadership shares relevant history from the ASU Morrison Institute and three decades of work with Independent Voting.
Center for the Future of Arizona
Basic function: Promotes a stronger and brighter future for Arizona; conducts research with that focus. Produces “The Arizona We Want” reports.
arizonafuture.org
Observations: Based on recent polling, currently focuses on seven priority policy areas:
- Education
- Economy, Inflation & State Spending
- Water and Environment
- Elections
- Immigration
- Housing Affordability & Homelessness.
Citizens Clean Election Commission
Basic function: Enforces the 1998 Clean Elections Act.
azcleanelections.gov
Observations: A quarter of a century administering and implementing a voter approved initiative aimed at rooting out political corruption and promoting confidence in our political process. Supports relevant research, provides comprehensive voting information for voters, and guidance for candidates.
Independent Voting
Basic function: Promotes voting rights for independent voters nationally, including Arizona.
independentvoting.org
Observations: Offers three decades of experience as a national strategy, communications, and organizing center for Independent Voters. Creates unorthodox coalitions to promote voter rights. Maintains a presence in many states, including Arizona.
Open Primaries
Basic function: Promotes movement to enable all voters to vote in every public election.
openprimaries.org
Observations: Advocates for open, nonpartisan primary election systems. Conducts diverse educational programs. Participates in building coalitions at multiple levels to expand the primary election reform movement. A growing force in the election process reform movement.
Save Democracy Arizona
Basic function: Promotes open primaries and other reforms. Sponsor of the Make Elections Fair AZ initiative.
savedemocracyaz.com
Observations: Involves leaders with a long history of election reform endeavors in Arizona. Now gathering signatures for placement of the Make Elections Fair Arizona Act on the 2024 ballot. The Act would remove existing obstacles for Independent Voters and candidates, plus other changes to reduce party control of elections.
Votebeat Arizona
Basic function: Reports comprehensively on current news specifically related to voter rights and election credibility.
votebeat.org
Observations: Focuses on several key states, including Arizona. Does not take positions on political issues. Aims to keep voters informed on election systems and proposed changes to them so voters can vote with more confidence.
Voter Choice Arizona
Basic function: Educate Arizona voters about equal signature requirements, open primaries, and ranked choice voting as means for better elections and improved governance.
voterchoicearizona.org
Observations: Developed an initiative to open primaries, equalize candidate requirements, and institute ranked choice voting (RCV). Initiative differs from Make Elections Fair initiative mainly in how it treats RCV (embedded in initiative). Recently chose to put initiative effort on hold to focus on opposing the Legislature’s move to make RCV illegal in Arizona.
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