Photo by Gloria Gomez / Arizona Mirror/University of Arizona
By Gloria Gomez | Arizona Mirror
The grass lawns in front of the Arizona Capitol were filled with brightly painted circus-style games on Monday, all of them satirical references to recent legislation restricting voting rights.
“We’re here to demonstrate that inside of those (legislative) chambers, Republican legislators are playing with people’s right to vote, and they want to pass ridiculous bills that are based on lies and that have turned our legislature into a circus,” said Paulette Zinzun, the voting rights coalition coordinator with Progress Arizona who helped organize the event.
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A smiling volunteer in a rainbow tutu greeted arrivals behind a red striped ticket booth, calling out, “Welcome to the circus, it’s not as crazy as the one inside!” An imposing stilt walker in a suit and tie stood between a blue cardboard mailbox and a white ballot drop box with “voting center” written on it in red letters. Players took an oversized green mail ballot and tried to get past him to deposit it in either box. No one succeeded. He blocked their deposits and asked for identification, told players they had been removed from the Active Early Voter List, or said the voting center had been shut down.
GOP lawmakers have advanced several proposals that restrict voting access by prohibiting drop-boxes, eliminating early-mail in voting, and favoring precinct-style voting over voting centers, which have been found to increase voter turnout. Republicans introduced about 100 bills to restrict elections, and roughly 60 are still alive.
