Policy Perspective - August 2024 Arizona Policy Update
Time To Talk About Voting and Fire Safety
The Arizona primary was on Tuesday, July 30, and the general election will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. With that in mind, below is some important information you might want to know.
Changes to Voter Registration Rules
Arizona residents who try to register to vote with the widely used state form will have their registration rejected unless they provide proof of U.S. citizenship, under a temporary ruling issued Thursday, July 18, from a federal appeals court.
That decision, by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, granted a partial stay of a lower-court ruling that struck down newer Arizona laws on federal-only voters. If the stay is in place, those voters can register to vote and cast ballots in federal elections only if they use a federal voter registration form. Arizona is the only state that asks for proof of citizenship when you register to vote. You need to provide one of the following:
- state ID
- driver’s license
- birth certificate
- U.S. passport
- naturalization certificate
Encouraging News about Guardianship and Voting
In Wood v. Coconino, a case the Arizona Court of Appeals decided on May 30, 2024, Wood argues that taking away her right to vote violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. She challenged the trial court’s finding that deeming a person legally incapacitated should automatically terminate that person’s right to vote, without determining Woods’s voting capacity.
Right now, the Arizona Constitution provides that “[n]o person who is adjudicated an incapacitated person shall be qualified to vote at any election.” Under the guardianship statutes, however, a person placed under a limited guardianship can retain the right to vote “if the person files a petition, has a hearing and the judge determines by clear and convincing evidence that the person retains sufficient understanding to exercise the right to vote.”
With this in mind, the Appeals Court found that due process rights were violated because the guardianship statutes in Arizona terminate the right to vote of a person under a general guardianship without first determining the person’s voting capacity. The court said that the trial court must reconsider whether Wood could express her preferences on a ballot and may do this by a separate hearing.
Coconino County's time to appeal the case has lapsed. Because of this decision, more individuals from the disability community will now be able to vote.
Fire Safety in Publicly-Funded Housing
Fire safety is always a topic in Arizona because of wildfire dangers. It is also a constant concern for individuals who have disabilities and live in apartment complexes. Many individuals with disabilities live on the upper floors of apartment complexes, even though they have requested lower-level units because of their disabilities. Most new buildings must comply with building codes that require certain fire safety measures to be taken. However, some of the public housing units that exist in Arizona have exemptions to certain codes because of the age of the building or the nature of the contract. This leaves some individuals with disabilities living in public housing in a very vulnerable position.
Frank Czyzewski, an advocate for seniors with disabilities living in public housing, had this to say about the issue:
“For over two-and-a-half years, I have been asking the City of Phoenix to improve the fire safety of their older facilities where lower-income disabled seniors live. The City response is either their fire safety is just fine or w, or when I bring up glaring specific issues, have no response. We need to have a public forum to discuss our concerns with the staff of every department to come up with a workable solution or wait until a resident dies in an apartment fire.”
Staff at ADDPC reached out to the City of Phoenix’s Equal Opportunity Department for some answers. We received the following response:
“The individuals would need to file a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Department for further investigations.”
If you or someone you know live in a structure within the City of Phoenix that has inadequate fire protection safeguards, here are the links to file a complaint:
If a sufficient number of people file complaints about fire safety, City officials will be forced to take action to create safer buildings for disabled seniors.
