The organization Arizona Town Hall partnered with the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and the School of Government and Public Policy on Oct. 17 to host a Wildcat Town Hall. The Town Hall aimed to bring students, community members and University of Arizona employees together to discuss Arizona’s voting system and what makes an effective democracy. 

The mission of Arizona Town Hall is to bring together different communities to create solutions for challenging problems facing Arizona and the U.S., while encouraging participants to think of how the solutions they come up with can be implemented. 

Participants at the Wildcat Town Hall were invited to share their experiences and opinions in a collaborative, roundtable setting, where they engaged with questions and worked toward a consensus.

The questions asked were designed to provoke diverse, multi-partisan perspectives. All discussions are recorded and turned into a final report of recommendations made by the participants. The report of recommendations is made available to Town Hall members, elected officials (including the Arizona Legislature), public libraries and other leadership organizations. The report is also available to the general public.

Topics of the questions are chosen a year in advance, with Arizona’s public universities collaborating with non-academic professionals to produce a research document that guides discussions.

Assistant Vice President for Community Relations at the UA Julie Katsel explained that Arizona Town Hall used to be an exclusive event, often held at nice venues and hotels over several days and attended by a select few.

However, Katsel said that, “Arizona Town Hall decided a few years ago that this model that they had of all these people coming and having a long weekend where they could talk about these issues was great for those people who could participate, but there were a lot of voices not represented. So there were policy recommendations coming out of that that were just from a pretty narrow group of Arizonans […] so Arizona Town Hall took the show on the road.” 

Now Arizona Town Hall has collaborative discussions with Arizonans all over the state. 

The first question presented during the Wildcat Town Hall was, “What constitutes an effective democracy?” 

Many of the participants agreed that voting accessibility constituted an effective democracy. 

“It’s important that people actually want to participate. When our voter participation is at like 60, 70 percent there is a large chunk of people who have the ability to make their voices heard who are actively choosing not to,” Grady Campbell, an undergraduate student at the UA, said. 

Campbell said that while many people are choosing not to vote, a more concerning issue is that some can’t vote due to barriers like being unable to take time off on Election Day, not knowing how to vote or facing other inequalities in the voting system.

“I think here in Arizona we have a lot of stricter registration requirements, especially for out-of-state students, you have to establish proof of residency […] whereas in other states you might not have to meet those requirements. And our voter registration deadline is a lot earlier,” Campbell said. 

Other participants in the group suggested that registration should be automatic or the deadline to register should be closer to the election. 

An Arizona Town Hall fact sheet that was given to participants read that a large number of Arizonans favored election accessibility measures like early voting, mail-in voting and automatic voter registration. It also read that most Arizonans view their elections as fair and secure.

However, the broader national conversation on trust in the election system has been influenced by fraud claims, particularly following the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters alleged that the election was stolen due to widespread fraud, including issues with mail-in ballots and voting machines. 

During the roundtable, Nick Hilton, director for government and community relations at the UA, said that several people are concerned, untrusting and left with the feeling that the voting system is unfair. 

“We are at a place where a lot of people are just concerned and don’t trust and they’re fearing and they’re left with this feeling that things aren’t fair. And so we do need to take steps to make sure our system is perceived as equal by everybody,” Hilton said. 

According to Hilton, making sure people are aware of the safeguards that are built into the election system is the first step to regaining that trust. 

Other questions included, “What actions should be taken and by whom to make voting, electing and our democracy more effective?” and, “To what extent do our current political and civic systems support an effective democracy?” 

Hilton said that a barrier he feels has exhausted voters and their desire to be engaged is increasing divisiveness. 

“I think a barrier that comes to mind for me is how both parties are sharing these messages that are based on outrage all the time and it’s exhausting for voters. When we’re so focused on outrage and these short little video clips, we’re not actually becoming informed in any way. It just seems for busy people who are raising kids or working, you don’t have time to sift through all of that, so you just shut it all out,” Hilton said. 

Other topics brought up throughout the roundtable discussion that had to do with voting and democracy were about the electoral college, Arizona judges and Arizona ballot propositions.

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