PHOENIX – Civil rights marches. Anti-war protests. Rallies against gun violence.

Public demonstrations historically have involved the “mass mobilization of bodies,” according to Tiera Rainey, program director for the Tucson Second Chance Community Bail Fund and an organizer with Black Lives Matter Tucson.

But when the novel coronavirus struck, prompting warnings against crowds and close contact, Arizona’s new reality of social distancing forced organizers to rethink that framework.

With President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr spreading lies, disinformation and confusion about voting by mail, it's more important than ever to understand how it works.

In Arizona, we've been voting by mail for more than a quarter century, with roughly eight out of 10 Arizonans embracing the convenience of early ballots in the 2016 presidential election.

Now the Democratic National Committee and Team Biden are expanding the Iwillvote.com website to help you better understand voting in Arizona (or whatever state you happen to be in). While the site previously allowed voters to check their registration status and find polling locations, it has been upgraded to guide voters to online resources to request an early ballot and provide other information about voting in Arizona.

“Voters have more options than ever to cast their ballots this year," said Biden for President Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. "IWillVote.com is a one-stop shop for voters to get information on flexible ways they can vote, and directly submit ballot requests to their local County Board of Elections. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can’t do it alone. We are building an unprecedented effort to ensure that voters can make a plan now to vote.”

In a Sept. 11 letter, Ward 3 councilman Paul Durham announced his plans to temporarily step down from his duties effective immediately.

Dear Colleagues,

I write to inform you that I will step back from my duties on a temporary basis starting immediately. I do so in order to recover from a recent injury and to ensure that I can properly support my husband, who is undergoing aggressive treatment for terminal cancer.

This has been a challenging time for both of us. Thank you for the support that you have offered to our family.

In the meantime, my office will continue to be available to each of you and Ward 3 constituents.

Mayor Regina Romero and Council Member Paul Durham have proposed a Tucson Climate Emergency Declaration as part of a nationwide call for mobilization to act locally and think globally as a community of communities.

This declaration focuses on issues relevant to our Southwest region needs, including resource conservation, restoring and rehabilitating ecosystems through green infrastructure, and carbon sequestration with a focus on massive tree planting.

A comprehensive climate action and adaptation plan is needed to ensure good quality jobs for a just and equitable transition as we recover from our current COVID-19 crisis. These efforts need community support and adoption. Local First Arizona is in full support.

The climate emergency is indeed the greatest emergency. Scientists have put the crisis in sharp focus: we have less than a decade to act before there is irreversible damage to our communities and economy.

As the largest local business coalition in the country, Local First Arizona supports the established science and our sustainability programs focus on taking action to support both businesses and the community through plans and strategies that are cost-effective and provide long-term economic and community benefits. Our award-winning SCALE UP project planning program provides support for businesses and nonprofits focused on beneficial sustainability strategies that also support the community’s needs in our current crisis.

We are already experiencing realities of the climate crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Nations finds that zoonotic diseases such as the disease caused by the novel coronavirus are spreading with greater frequency due to human activity, including industrial farming and deforestation.

Fox News released a poll today that showed retired astronaut and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Mark Kelly with a 17-point lead over appointed Sen. Martha McSally.

That's way outside the survey's =/- 3.5 percent margin of error.

The survey shows 56 percent of those polled prefer Kelly, while just 39 are supporting McSally, a Republican who lost a 2018 Senate race to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema but was later appointed to the Senate seat previously held by the late John McCain by Gov. Doug. Because she was appointed, McSally must face voters again this year (and whoever wins in November will have to defend the seat in 2022).

With only one recent exception, McSally has consistently trailed Kelly in polling, as a roundup at FiveThirtyEight.com shows. The polling average Real Clear Politics now puts Kelly ahead by an average of 11.3 percentage points. McSally has decried the poor numbers as "fake polls."

The Fox News poll also showed Democrat Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump in Arizona. Biden had the support of 49 percent of likely voters, while Trump had the support of 40 percent.

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Millions of Americans who are struggling to put food on the table may discover a new item in government-funded relief packages of fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat: a letter signed by President Donald Trump.

The message, printed on White House letterhead in both English and Spanish, touts the administration’s response to the coronavirus, including aid provided through the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative to buy fresh food and ship it to needy families.

The letter is reminiscent of Trump’s effort to put his signature on stimulus checks and send a signed letter to millions of recipients. It’s the latest example of the president blurring his official duties with his reelection campaign, most prominently by hosting Trump’s acceptance speech for the Republican nomination last week on the White House lawn.

Democratic lawmakers have gone so far as to say the USDA letter violates the federal Hatch Act. The law prohibits government officials from using their positions or taxpayer resources to engage in electioneering. Though the president himself is exempt, the ban applies to White House staff and agencies such as the USDA.

“Using a federal relief program to distribute a self-promoting letter from the President to American families just three months before the presidential election is inappropriate and a violation of federal law,” argued 49 House Democrats led by Marcia Fudge of Ohio in an August 14 letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, requesting information about the purpose and process behind Trump’s letter. “A public health crisis is not an opportunity for the administration to promote its own political interests. Likewise, a federal food assistance program should not be used as a tool for the President to exploit taxpayer dollars for his re-election campaign.”

This article is part of Electionland, ProPublica’s collaborative reporting project covering problems that prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots during the 2020 elections. Sign up to receive updates about our voting coverage and more each week.

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Hundreds of Thousands of Nursing Home Residents May Not Be Able to Vote in November Because of the Pandemic

Renowned inventor Walter Hutchins has voted in every presidential election since 1952. This year, as many states stopped sending teams to help seniors vote, his nursing home was on coronavirus lockdown and his streak was in jeopardy. Read the story.

What to Know About Voting in 2020

• Here’s how to vote in all 50 states. (FiveThirtyEight, Axios)
• Here’s what to know about vote by mail and making sure your ballot counts. (The Guardian, US News & World Report, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Cyberscoop)
• Here’s what to know about voting by mail in Texas. (The Houston Chronicle, The Texas Tribune)
• Here’s how the mail voting process works in Colorado. (The Denver Post)
• Here’s what to know about voting in Pennsylvania. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Here’s how the voting process is changing this year due to the pandemic. (BuzzFeed News)
• The USPS launched a site to answer questions on mail voting. (USPS)
• Here’s advice on how to prepare your newsroom to cover voting this year. (Knight-Cronkite News Lab)

Vote by Mail News

• More than 550,000 mail ballots were rejected in this year’s presidential primaries, per a new analysis. (NPR)
• University of Florida professor Michael McDonald is tracking mail ballot requests by party in several states. (Michael McDonald)
• North Carolina is the first state to begin voting for president and has seen 10 times the number of absentee ballot requests as in the same period in 2016. (ABC News)
• Democratic super PACs plan to spend more than $7 million on ads encouraging mail voting. (CNN)
• Some Black and Latino voters are distrustful of mail voting, surveys show. (Politico)
• Missouri spent tens of thousands of dollars on ballot drop boxes that won’t be used the fall. (KSN)

PHOENIX – When the Milwaukee Bucks declined to take the floor for Game 5 of their series with the Orlando Magic Wednesday in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, their seismic decision reverberated throughout professional sports. One by one, the NBA’s three Wednesday playoff games were postponed. Hours later, the Milwaukee Brewers also elected not to play in their Wednesday night contest with the Cincinnati Reds.

Multiple Major League Baseball teams followed their lead. The Arizona Diamondbacks did not on Wednesday, but on Thursday elected not to play.

“Today is not necessarily about not playing. It’s about creating an avenue to discuss why we aren’t playing. … It’s about making people better, making people aware,” pitcher Archie Bradley said.

WASHINGTON – Most Republicans watched President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech from their couches Thursday but Gov. Doug Ducey watched from the South Lawn of the White House.

The invitation for Ducey and his wife to be on hand for the speech is just the latest example of Ducey’s increasingly cozy relationship with the administration. Thursday’s visit was Ducey’s second trip to the White House this month and at least his third this year, while Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have made repeated trips to Arizona in recent months.

“We’ve had a tremendous relationship,” Trump said during a Ducey visit earlier this month, “You’ve done a fantastic job. We’re very proud of you.”

The feeling is apparently mutual.

“Gov. Ducey is honored to be invited to the White House for this historic occasion and to support President Trump,” Ducey spokesman Patrick Ptak said Thursday. “The governor is very grateful for the leadership of President Trump and Vice President Pence, especially their support of Arizona through this pandemic.”

One analyst said it just makes sense for the governor to have a good relationship with the president.

“It’s an honor to be invited to see history … I applaud the governor for doing that,” said Jason Rose, a Republican political consultant in Arizona. “No secret that this governor has enjoyed a good working relationship with the president, and especially with the vice president.”

But another noted that Trump needs Arizona, which is widely expected to be a battleground state in this fall’s elections, and that “photo ops with the governor is one way to get on the news at night.”