Republicans seek to throw out ballots in Latino heavy district in Arizona

Lawyers for Arizona Republican congressional candidate Martha McSally's campaign are moving to throw out provisional ballots of voters in Pima County, which has a large Latino population.

McSally is the Republican running against incumbent Rep. Ron Barber (D-AZ) in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, one of the tightest races that still hasn't been called. Right now, McSally is leading Barber by a slim margin of 341 votes according to the Arizona Daily Star. But about 9,000 provisional ballots have not been counted yet, according to Tucson Weekly. 

McSally's lawyers suggested that they could go to court in an effort to stop some of the provisional ballots from being processed. McSally's campaign, in particular, is focused on six precincts in Pima County, five of them happen to be in the 2nd Congressional District, according to the Tucson Sentinel. Notably, Pima County is 35 percent Hispanic or Latino, according to the United States Census Bureau. Five of those Pima County precincts went for President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in the last presidential election.

Disinterested Voters, Is It Apathy or Manipulation and Gridlock?

by Jimmy Franco Sr.  Latino Point of View.

The November mid-term elections are now approaching and a political debate and divide is developing among many disgruntled voters as to whether to cast a ballot to support the continuing gridlock in congress and the governmental inaction that has resulted from this situation or abstain. California’s recent June electoral primary had the lowest proportional turnout ever as only a quarter of the voters even bothered to cast a ballot. For many Latinos who are disillusioned with the unprincipled Democrats and their disrespect and empty promises, a decision must be made whether to continue

A Latina activist ponders whether to support Democrats who retreated on immigration reform

following them in a slavish manner after being continually taken for granted or simply sit this one out. Many elitist pundits and die-hard Democratic Party loyalists lament the low rate of voter turnout at election time and tend to label and fault the voters as being either apathetic of even worse lazy and not caring. In reality, the majority of working-class voters, minorities and women do care about their jobs, wages, children’s education, rights and the continual rise in consumer prices. What these frustrated and angry voters have experienced and still observe is a government that takes their taxes while talkative politicians continue to break their campaign promises by not enacting any concrete laws to improve economic and social conditions for middle-class and lower-income people. This is particularly true at the federal level and even locally within the Los Angeles Unified school District where chaos and dysfunction dominate an educational system that is run by incompetents. Distrustful voters have witnessed a situation of ongoing political gridlock among the US Congress and the president for close to four years now. This legislative stalemate, name calling and inaction on pressing issues is what creates cynicism and non-voting among the electorate especially those who are low-income, minority and young. People no longer want to hear rhetoric, but want to see real changes occur within the real world in which they live. During the 2008 presidential election a ‘messianic’ Obama campaigned as the people’s anti-war candidate and he preached and enthralled voters with his idealistic messages about hope and peace, a new type of government with real representation, a reduction in military conflicts and nuclear weapons, and an improvement in the well-being of working people’s lives. This type of revivalist campaign talk and lofty beliefs particularly inspired the hopes of the young, minorities and women and energized them to turn out in large numbers to support and vote for his promise of change and the building of a new society.