Home - League of Women Voters Northern Arizona

Upcoming Candidate Forums

The League of Women Voters of Northern Arizona and the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce are hosting forums involving Verde Valley candidates running for office in the July 30, 2024 primary election. All forums will be videotaped, posted to YouTube, and publicized when available.

Camp Verde Town Council and Mayoral

Monday, June 24

Philip England Center for the Performing Arts

210 Camp Lincoln, Camp Verde

5:30 to 7:00 councilor candidates

YouTube Video

7:15 to 8:15 mayoral candidates

YouTube Video

Clarkdale Town Council and Mayoral

Monday, July 1

Clarkdale Jerome School

1615 Main Street, Clarkdale

5:30 to 7:00 councilor candidates
YouTube Video

7:15 to 8:15 mayoral candidates
YouTube Video

Cottonwood Town Council and Mayoral

Monday, July 8

Cottonwood Community Clubhouse

805 North Main Street, Cottonwood

5:30 to 7:00 councilor candidate
YouTube Video

7:15 to 8:15 mayoral candidates
YouTube Video

We’re out and about helping Voters Register

and answering questions

We are at these locations at various times:

Camp Verde Library - ongoing

Camp Verde Farmer's Market - 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month starting May 25th

Clarkdale Library - ongoing

Sedona - ongoing

VOC Library – ongoing

May 5 - 2:00 - 3:00

Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts - prior to "“The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 at 100: Its Significance for Native Americans in Arizona and Beyond.”

201 Camp Lincoln Rd

Camp Verde

Arizona for Abortion Access Campaign and League Involvement

About the Campaign

Arizona for Abortion Access is a coalition of reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations working to ensure Arizonans can make the decisions that are best for them and their families — free from government interference. This ballot initiative is supported by the ACLU of Arizona, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Arizona List, Healthcare Rising Arizona, Reproductive Freedom for All Arizona (formerly NARAL Arizona), and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona. Together, these organizations represent hundreds of thousands of Arizonans in every community and from every walk of life.

These trusted institutions have worked extensively together protecting and expanding abortion access over the years. They have now partnered to begin collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2024 ballot. This amendment will protect abortion access in Arizona and ensure every person can make this deeply personal decision with dignity.

About the Initiative

The “Arizona Abortion Access Act” would enshrine the fundamental right to abortion in Arizona’s constitution. If passed, this measure would ensure freedom for a person to make their own decision on abortion. This is a deeply personal decision that most Arizonans believe should be made without interference from the government.

Arizona for Abortion Access

Petition I-05-2024 Arizona Abortion Access Act

LWV’s Role in the Campaign

The LWV Arizona has a key role as a member of the field committee organized under the auspices of Health Care Rising (HCR). The deadline for submitting signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State is July 3, 2024. Our goal is to submit our petitions to the campaign by June 30, 2024, to allow time for the campaign to quality-check the petitions.

The Arizona for Abortion Access campaign has surpassed 500k signatures! This is a significant step toward the goal of having >700k signatures.
The Coalition of volunteer organizations has now surpassed 90k signatures collected by volunteers! Thank you for your hard work. The Coalition is optimistic that our volunteers might surpass 100k by the middle of April--let's make it happen! The overall goal is 150k signatures collected by volunteers.
(If you're wondering how the Coalition has 90k signatures and the overall campaign has 500k, the non-volunteer signatures are coming from paid petition circulators. The more volunteer signatures that we have, the less campaign cash needs to go to paying circulators. The overall campaign will need lots of cash later for persuading voters and for litigation.)
The momentum to collect signatures must continue! We need a large buffer with a minimum of 700,000 signatures overall, and it'd be best to have 750,000 or even 800,000+. We will continue to collect signatures until the petitions are turned in on July 3.

Word is that opponents of this amendment plan to spend $3M to dispute signatures. We need a very large buffer. So Keep on collecting signatures! If you need another petition - I still have some! Contact Robyn at rcpbauer@gmail.com to get one.

The League is setting up a series of Depots and Hubs to facilitate distribution and collection of petitions. Help and training to be provided.

How to Volunteer

We know our members are eager to start this critical project, so you must raise your hand to volunteer for the roles described above so we can be efficient and successful! Complete this SHORT SURVEY and let us know how you want to help. Thank you for your continued support.

State Advocacy

The League is a nonpartisan political organization. That means we never support or oppose candidates or political parties. We do study, take positions and then advocate for our priorities. At the state level this year our priorities for Advocacy, as chosen by our members and approved by the state board are:

Voting Rights
Women’s Rights
Education
Climate
Gun Safety
Criminal Justice
Ranked Choice Voting

Legislative Analysis Team – monitors AZ state legislation in these priority areas, studies the impact of bills, prepares testimony for our lobbyists and alerts members who may wish to contact their legislator, or express a position using the AZ Legislature Request to Speak System

Volunteer Lobby Core – members are trained and registered as League lobbyists. They attend Legislative committee meetings and testify on our behalf. Multiple volunteers are especially important when there are several committee meetings on a single day. Funds are available for transportation and parking for members outside of Metro Phoenix.

Advocacy Newsletter – generally sent weekly to subscribers during the Legislative season. Informs members of critical bills and suggests oppose or support with talking points. Sign up at lwvazadvocacy@gmail.com

Request to Speak (RTS) – this is a wonderful, unique feature of the AZ Legislature. Any member registered on the site can express support or opposition to a bill before a committee hearing, as well as leave comments – which legislators do read! This is an easy and important way to become involved. Training is offered and we will help you register for the system. If you haven’t done this before – this is the year!

Taking a Position

Digital Equity

Policy

At the most recent National Convention in June 2022 League membership voted to adopt a policy position on Digital Equity. The policy states:

The League of Women Voters believes that high-speed affordable internet access is an essential service that should be readily available to all US residents and businesses. National, state, and local government policies should support broadband, wireless, and other means of high-speed internet deployment throughout the nation. Efficient, high-speed, affordable access to the internet for all US residents in their homes, schools, and workplaces — regardless of geographic location or neighborhood demographics — is a necessity for assuring equal access to local and state government, maintaining openness and transparency in government activities, communicating with legislative leaders, engaging in political discourse, competing in the global marketplace, and assuring that voters receive the information they need to participate in our democracy.

Health Care

This is an additional entry in a series on the League’s public policy positions. Positions are adopted after extensive research and study by chapters across the US. Once a position is adopted, League chapters can advocate and lobby specifically for agendas which further the League position.

The League’s position on health care can be found in “Impact on Issues, A Guide to Public Policy Positions”, issued by the League of Women Voters of the United States, 2020-2022. See https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2020-12/LWV-impact-2020.pdf

LWV Policy on Health Care

The League believes that every US resident should have access to affordable, quality health care. Basic care includes disease prevention, primary care (including prenatal and reproductive health), acute long-term care, mental health care, as well as health promotion and education.

The League supports a single-payer model as a viable approach to ensuring equitable access, affordability, and financial feasibility. It opposes a strictly private market-based model of financing the health care system.

The League supports regulatory incentives to encourage the development of cost-effective alternative ways of delivering and paying for health care, such as telemedicine.