True assessment of election procedure needed

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – Senator Steve Gallardo and Representative Martin Quezada released the following statements in response to Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett's testimony on voting rights before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today:

Sen. Gallardo

Senator Steve Gallardo, D-29:

"Arizona needs a true and impartial assessment of our elections process, not willful ignorance from the man who used his office to question the birthplace of President Obama," said Sen. Gallardo.

"Secretary Bennett has announced that he is conducting an assessment of election procedures, but he has not reached out to any of the minority communities that were disenfranchised by long lines and provisional ballots. There's a reason Arizona has always been under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and it's because of things just like this."



Rep. Quezada

Representative Martin Quezada, D-29:

"It was disappointing, but not surprising, that Secretary Bennett used his time before the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee to claim ignorance of disproportionately high numbers of provisional ballots in minority precincts while attempting to put the blame on groups that worked hard to register new Hispanic voters," said Rep. Quezada.

"The long polling place lines and massive number of provisional ballots we witnessed in the last election are unacceptable."