Arizona is weeks away from the Oct. 7 voter registration deadline and the Arizona Center for Empowerment is pushing to register 40,000 new voters with its VOTEriaAZ campaign.
Last March, ACE launched the 2024 VOTEriaAZ campaign, setting a goal of knocking on 3.5 million doors and registering 40,000 new voters in Maricopa, Pima, Cochise and Yuma counties.
As of Sept. 6, it had registered 15,863 new voters across the state. The team has had 260,000 doors opened and 292,000 attempts, according to Tucson Campaign Manager Faith Ramon of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
ACE is a nonpartisan social justice organization founded in 2009. Rather than endorsing candidates, the nonprofit focuses on policy change.
With 400 newly trained organizers canvassing these areas, VOTEriaAZ hopes to not only get more people registered to vote but encourage long-term civic engagement.
“When you think about 3 million doors and 40,000 voters, those numbers are super high,” Ramon said. “They’re super ambitious. That’s how we think.”
This summer, VOTEriaAZ partnered with Grita Canta Vota, a nonpartisan campaign that encourages the Latino community to vote through music. Together, they have attended concerts, engaged with attendees and registered voters.
Ramon says that ACE has partnered with schools statewide to lead mass voter registration drives. In addition to its work with schools, ACE frequently tables in often-overlooked places on Tucson’s south side, including local libraries, the Primavera Foundation and Pima County’s Women, Infants & Children program.
To better understand the concerns of community members, ACE has adopted a hands-on approach through listening sessions.
“By having this listening session, we have power, we have a voice,” Community Organizer Elizabeth Yee told a group of 25 participating in a recent session. “We vote them out if they aren’t meeting our demands. They work for us, and that’s what we need to remember.”
Accessibility to ACE’s listening sessions is a priority for the organization. They often provide food for attendees, as well as childcare and transportation upon request. At the sessions, ACE gathers data to guide their People First Economy and Water Guardians campaigns.
Top issues raised by attendees in Pima County include the cost of living, affordable housing, healthcare, water conservation, food insecurity and access to higher education. At the most recent session, attendees overwhelmingly supported a policy mandating voter registration at age 18.
A study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found that more than 8 million young adults nationwide reached voting age in 2024 and 47% of them identified as people of color. Another study by Arizona State University’s Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy showed that 66% of Gen Z voters plan to vote in November, 29% aren’t sure if they will and 5% indicated they will not vote.
Karen Ornelas, a University of Arizona student who attended a listening session, says that a big concern for them is immigration legislation including Arizona Proposition 314, also known as the Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure. The bill, on the November ballot, proposes strengthening penalties and enforcement against noncitizens entering the state through locations other than designated ports of entry.
“I know about the racist history that Arizona has had with people, especially being from Yuma,” Ornelas said. “As this election season is approaching us, it’s reminding me why I have to continue to talk about these issues because if we don’t talk about them, people think they kind of don’t exist.”
According to the 2024 ASU study, the top reasons why Gen Z voters chose not to vote in 2022 included 29% citing that they were “too busy,” 25% finding the voting process “too complicated or confusing,” 17% ‘feeling that “candidates didn’t reflect their ideas” and 15% “feeling their vote did not matter.”
Ramon said that it is important that young people feel that their participation can make a difference, and ACE is working to not only empower their perspectives but also make change happen. She said that checking your voter registration status only takes a few minutes.
Important Voting Dates:
- Oct. 7 – Voter Registration Deadline
- Oct. 9 – Ballots & Drop Boxes Available
- Oct. 25 – Last Day to request an early ballot
- Oct. 29 – Last Day to mail back your ballot
- Nov. 5 – Election Day
Looking to check your voter registration status through VOTEriaAZ? Learn more at https://www.voteriaaz.org/.
Looking to volunteer with ACE? Learn more at https://www.empoweraz.org/volunteer.
