ACLU launches effort to educate Arizona voters on Senate candidates
Jun 26, 2018, 3:46 PM
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona launched its first-ever statewide effort to educate voters about the civil liberties and civil rights issues at stake in elections.
The U.S. Senate race is the focus of the voter education push.
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Kelli Ward are running for the Republican seat, while U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and Deedra Abboud are running on the Democratic side.
The seat is being vacated by U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
“We believe in the Constitution, Democracy, and voters,” Tony Cani, the political director of the ACLU of Arizona, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday.
“That’s why we are educating voters so they can make up their own mind about candidates and their political history.”
The ACLU of Arizona does not support, oppose or endorse candidates.
The goal of the program is to ensure that voters are aware of candidates’ past actions and current positions on important civil liberties issues, such as racial justice, criminal justice, and immigrants’ rights.
“The more these voters know, the better,” Cani said.
With Tuesday’s launch of the ACLU voter education campaign, they now have a scorecard that shows where Republican primary candidates in the U.S. Senate race stand on immigrants’ rights.
“We know that voters of all parties will vote as though their rights depend on it, especially with more information that they have about individual candidates’ records, because a lot is at stake,” Cani said.
“We are putting candidates like Joe Arpaio on notice, that their history of civil rights abuses will not be ignored in Arizona.”