End Proxy Abuse

[Arizona Freedom Alliance]

Would you go to the polls on Election Day and take with you all the Early Ballots your neighbors and friends had received but did not bother to take the time to vote for themselves, check in at the polling station and then proceed to a booth and vote them all?  Let's say your friends told you how they wanted them voted but you decided to vote differently.

Would you think that was a good idea?

That is what the Republican party allows to be done.  The only difference is that the party colludes in the process by handing the ballots of others over to PCs, making them complicit.

In the Republican party, this is the standard hierarchy (this section is for those unfamiliar with how inside party politics works):

1. People get elected on Primary Day as Precinct Committeemen (PCs) in their precinct.  They only need to get 10 signatures on a signature sheet and turn them in to the Recorder's Office in their county.  Most people do not even know about this process.

2. The PCs then go to their local district meeting and elect the Board for that district.  At the same time, they elect State Committeemen (SCs).

3.  The PCs go once a year to a county meeting where they elect the county officers.  Maricopa County is particularly important because it is the fourth largest county in the country.  The county officers conduct the annual meeting with approximately 1200 votes.

4.  The State Committeemen who are PCs who get elected to go to the state meetings once a year.  Each district gets one State Committeeman out of every three PCs or 1/3 of the PCs become SCs.

5.  These SCs attend the annual meetings of the Arizona Republican Party to vote for the business of the party and to elect officers.  The elected officers are a powerful force in Republican Party business across the state.  They also have influence with elected officials and control the money to get Republicans elected to public office.

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These meetings are where proxies come in because the state statutes and the party Bylaws allow PCs and SCs to vote in absentia by proxy.  The original law/Bylaws were intended to serve those who could not (not would not) attend the annual meetings much like you might send in your proxy vote if you own stock and cannot attend the corporation's annual meetings.  The problem began when ballot swapping was allowed and there was no limit on how many proxies any one PC/SC could carry.  At the last Maricopa County meeting, a PC named J. Askey had a stack of proxies so big it was nearly impossible to count how many votes he could cast for electing officers.  THIS is how the establishment contiues to control party politics on all levels in Arizona.  We will get some comments about the importance of proxies - and there are advantages always when a few people can swing a vote through proxies if they are on YOUR side.  Our democratic method of voting is built on the concept of one man, one vote.  We will get comments that if conservatives would get out and recruit to fill open PC seats in every precinct which is a TRUE statement but it's been tried for years and it hasn't happened due to human nature.  The Republican Party controlled by John McCain pays recruiters to sign up "paper PCs" for the very reason to carry their proxy.  Conservatives don't have a "McCain" benefactor!

What other entity allows one person to have as many votes (ballots) as they can carry?  That is where Archie Dicksion comes in.

Archie is spearheading an effort to limit the number of proxies that one person can carry.

Over the past ten (10) months or so I have spoken to many of you about the use of Proxies at Republican Party meetings. Your have expressed you concern that the party allows unlimited proxies at meetings. Pursuant to your expressed statement that no one should be allowed to carry more than two (2) proxies, I accordingly drafted a proposed resolution to that effect to be presented at the Mandatory Meeting. My Resolution went on to limit proxies from any LD to no more than ten (10) percent of their authorized members. It further provided that if a State Committeeman resided within the County where the meeting was to take place, they could not appear by proxy.

My resolution will be presented as a Floor Resolution at the Mandatory Meeting on January 27th, 2018. On that date there will be people gathering signatures to allow the resolution to be considered by the committee as a whole. If you wish to limit the use of proxies at Arizona Republican Party Meetings, please sign the petition to allow the Resolution to be considered and then vote you conscience.

If you are willing to assist in gathering signatures to have this resolution heard, please see me at the meeting site. I will be one of those juggling clipboards at the meeting site.

Archie

[Mike White]

Most of us SCs from Gila County plan to get there early next Saturday to sign these critically important petitions.  The GOPe had previously blocked all petition-based resolutions without explanation in order to keep them off the agenda.  Those presently in power do not want proxy limits or paper ballots (vs. easy-to-manipulate electronic).   If 20% of the attendees sign the petitions early in the morning, the GOPe leaders will have no choice but to allow the topics to be on the agenda for discussion and a vote. This is the only way to provide transparency back into our system.  (But hopefully we won't get buried by those plants with ginormous stacks of proxies).

[Arizona Freedom Alliance]

Not so fast, Mike.  Just two yrs ago, could have been three, people got there and got more than enough signatures to put forward a censure of Robert Graham. Graham knew it was coming and hired an outside parliamentarian who used 1/2  rule to call the Resolution out of Order.  It was not until after the meeting adjourned that some astute SC found that ruling in Robert's Rules that had an exception to his ruling to refuse the resolution and it would have allowed the resolution to go forward. The usual sneaky behavior.  We suggest that each SC get familiar with the RROO and carry a copy.  Also, find Joe Neglia from LD11 (I think) because he is very astute on RR and the AZGOP Bylaws.

[Mike White]

I tried to read up on the topic of resolutions in RRO and just got confused.  I couldn't find anything on how to force a hostile chair to put a resolution on the agenda.  (Maybe it is instead described in the Bylaws).  But RRO does truly hate the use of Proxies, and only as a last resort.  So if they use a Parliamentary trick on this topic, then we should ask the Parliamentarian to describe what RRO says about it and watch him tap dance.

[John5319]

Information is DANGEROUS to those who want to enslave us ...... Stand strong ... Stand United ... and drain the swamp waters in Arizona. Evil love darkness and its time to pull back The Curtain of Oz (McCain).

[Jay clagg]

Drain the swamp

[Karen Gevaert]

Thank you Archie for your steadfast commitment to make a wrong 'right'  God bless you!!

[Mike White]

Archie Dicksion just informed me that we have to have the signatures compiled by 9:00 AM.  So we need to have the SCs there early.  Spread the word.

[J.R. Arizona]

There is also a bill HB2012 that will limit proxies by statute. See my prior post about hammering the Government committee to bring this bill to the floor. Use the Request to Speak app to voice favor as well.

https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/GetDocumentPdf/454478

[Arizona Freedom Alliance]

Our crack Legislative team will be posting about that particular Bill and will advise when it is in a status  for Request to Speak to be open on that Bill.  You can read the bill at azleg.gov and click Bills and put in the number then go to Documents.

[Bruce M Piepho]

Dear AFA crack legislative team - check out the state senators.  I asked my senator to consider co-sponsoring and there are at least four GOPe state senators willing to vote no!!  So it could pass in the  house and die in the senate.  If you can identify the GOPe reluctant ones for common sense voting by proxy - let us know so we can apply heat - we can set their feet on fire.

If the current AZGOP bylaw recommended change gets a vote yes by the State Committeemen/women the A.R.S. still needs to be passed to prevent future changes back to the good old boys way of doing business.

Archie's proposal deals with the abuse in the LDs and provides additional proxy usage in Maricopa county.  AND that would be a very good thing.

[Arizona Freedom Alliance]

We will take a stab at answering your question: Bob Worsley, LD25, for certain.  Kate Brophy Magee, possible.  Frank Pratt, liberal from LD8,  Nancy Barto, LD15,  maybe newly re-minted Rick Gray, LD21 or Karen Fann, LD1.  That is our best guess.  There is a new person in the seat formerly held by Debbie Lesko, Sine Karr, LD13, who is still an unknown.  Full disclosure: this does not come from our Crack Legislative Team so maybe that lead person will weigh in.

[Bruce M Piepho]

Thank you for the insight or guesses.  Interestingly how the LDs in Maricopa seem to at the fore front of ignoring the people and refuse to do the right thing.  I will gather contact info and do some more digging on the seven names.  It will take some digging into the LDs by operatives in Maricopa county.  But out here in the rural area of Cochise county not one of the seven names cares about our vote.

Too bad there are not 4,00 subscribers to AFA.