Wednesday, October 20, 2021
PHOENIX – Low-income voters accounted for 35% of the 168 million votes cast nationwide in the 2020 presidential election, and in Arizona, that percentage was 44, according to a recent study by the Poor People’s Campaign.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is a nonpartisan voter outreach drive. Its study, “Waking the Sleeping Giant: Poor and Low Income Voters in the 2020 Election,” was conducted in all 50 states and included a special focus on nine “battleground states,” including Arizona.
Arizona had more than 5 million eligible voters in 2018, according to Pew Research Center data, and nearly half had an annual household income of less than $50,000, the study found.
Low-income Arizonans cast 1.4 million votes in the 2020 general election, representing nearly 44% of the 3.4 million votes statewide. Low-income white voters accounted for 29% of the Arizona vote, and low-income Hispanic and Black voters accounted for 8.1% and 0.4%, respectively.
There was no data specific to Indigenous/Native American voters. A supplement to the study will be added next year to include more information on Native American voters, said Shailly Gupta Barnes, Poor People’s Campaign policy director.
The study cited disinterest in politics among poor and low-income voters as the reason for low voter turnout in previous general elections.
“I just want to stress it’s not apathy,” voting rights attorney Penda Hair said during a news conference discussing the study. “This report shows it is systemic factors that include a lack of discussion of issues of interest of poor people and political dialogue, a lack of candidates to run on a moral agenda and, at least as importantly, a lack of candidates to stick to that moral agenda once they get elected and fight for it with all the strength they have.”
Gupta Barnes said community organizing across the country contributed to record high voter turnout on Nov. 3, 2020.
Mass meetings, protests and educational and cultural activities created “a kind of community that I think a lot of people are craving,” Gupta Barnes said.
And because of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional measures – such as mail-in-ballots, same-day voter registration, drive-thru voting and community organization – not only made it easier for people to vote but encouraged those who hadn’t voted in previous years to cast ballots.
Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: [email protected]. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Associate Professor Deepta Bhattacharya joined the University of Arizona status update on Monday, Oct 19, to highlight new vaccine research and discuss the controversial debate over booster shots.
Before the delta variant mutated from the original COVID-19, the coronavirus mRNA Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had extremely high efficacy. Bhattacharya said the vaccines made people 20 times less likely to get infected than unvaccinated individuals. Delta lowered vaccine efficacy to where vaccinated individuals are now two to five times less likely to get COVID.
According to Bhattacharya, this is due to the delta’s high transmissibility. The delta variant is two to three times more transmissible than the original virus. Bhattacharya warned delta has completely changed the game for the unvaccinated.
“A year ago you might imagine that there were some scenarios if you’re careful if you mask, if you stay away from other people, you might be able to avoid the virus even if you hadn’t been vaccinated,” Bhattacharya said. “I don’t think with the transmissibility of delta as it is right now that is very likely, eventually, the virus will get you if you are not vaccinated.”
Pima County is still considered to be a highly transmissible area, according to the Pima County Health Department. Dr. Joe Gerald from the University of Arizona reported in his weekly COVID-19 update that as of Oct 3, the highest cases of infection are coming from the 15 to 24 age group. The lowest COVID cases are coming from the age group of 65 and older. This group has the highest rate of vaccination.
New research is showing the vaccines are reducing transmission of the virus, including the delta variant. Bhattacharya said a contact tracing study revealed vaccinated individuals are two-thirds less likely than an unvaccinated person to transmit the virus to someone else.
WASHINGTON — A six-week abortion ban in Texas enacted in September forced those seeking abortion services in the Lone Star State to look across state lines for care.
But the timing couldn’t have been worse for Texans living near the state’s eastern border.
The law took effect as neighboring Louisiana was reeling from the destruction of Hurricane Ida, which shut down two of the state’s three abortion clinics for several days. The growing number of patients seeking help had to wait until the clinics could restore power, or travel hundreds of miles to other providers.
But that was just a preview of the obstacles that would emerge if the Supreme Court upholds a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. For example, Louisiana’s own law would shift to the same 15-week ban, advocates say.
The abortion case that will be heard by the nation’s top court on Dec. 1, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, could spur a cascade of legal changes across two dozen states if justices back the restrictive Mississippi law — and potentially dismantle the landmark 1973 ruling affirming the right to an abortion.
Access would be most severely restricted in a long band of neighboring states stretching across the South and Midwest, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is challenging the law.
Monday, October 18, 2021
Friday, October 15, 2021
Thursday, October 14, 2021
WASHINGTON – Fully vaccinated non-essential travelers will be allowed to cross the U.S. border from Mexico starting in November, ending nearly 20 months of pandemic restrictions that were choking businesses in border communities.
No specific date was given for when the restrictions will be lifted, but the long-awaited announcement was welcomed by area officials, who have been repeatedly disappointed in their hopes that nonessential travel would be allowed to resume.
“It’s a great start and we’re really elated to be able to have friends, be able to return back to visit us here in business, and throughout the state of Arizona,” Douglas Mayor Donald C. Huish said Wednesday.
He was particularly pleased that the new rule would take effect in time for people to cross the border for holiday shopping and visiting.
The new rule, announced Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security, will allow nonessential travelers to cross at land borders from Mexico and Canada if they have proof of vaccination, reversing a ban on nonessential travel from those countries that began in March 2020.
Essential travelers, like commercial truckers, health care workers and others, have been allowed to cross the border during the pandemic. But they will also need to produce proof of vaccination beginning in January if they wish to continue crossing, under the new policy.
