Resources for Arts and Cultural Organizations in an Election Year
Are you affiliated with an AZ nonprofit organization? Are you concerned about arts and cultural issues in Arizona? Arizona Citizens for the Arts and Alliance for Arizona Nonprofits have compiled many useful tools for voters to use during this election year.
Arizona Citizens Action for the Arts recently launched Vote smART Arizona, a “grassroots campaign to help register voters, identify arts-and-culture friendly candidates for local and federal offices and to encourage civic discourse surrounding the upcoming primary and general elections.” Rusty Foley, Executive Director of Arizona Citizens for the Arts identifies two primary goals of the Vote smART Arizona project. She says, “The first is to empower arts, culture and arts education supporters, organizations, their volunteers and staff in the election process through voter registration and education about candidates who support arts and culture issues. The second is to educate the general community about the importance of arts and culture issues and help citizens make informed decisions with their votes.”
The Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits is encouraging nonprofits to maximize their civic engagement potential by encouraging stakeholders to vote: “The first step to actively engage your nonprofit in promoting civic engagement through voting is ensuring that your staff, board, volunteers and community stakeholders are registered. The deadline for registering to vote in the primary election is midnight on July 30.”
Learn more about voter registration through the tools Vote smART and the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits are offering, at http://votesmartaz.com/votesmart/, and http://www.arizonanonprofits.org/VoteForCommunity2012.
Key dates for the upcoming elections include:
July 30: Deadline to register to vote in the Arizona primary
August 2: Arizona primary election
October 9: Deadline to register to vote in the general election
October 11: Early voting for general election begins
November 6: General election
