"Arizona Civil Rights Initiative" files petitions despite massive racially-targeted voter fraud
BAMN pursues lawsuit and campaign to keep ACRI off ballot

The "Arizona Civil Rights Initiative" (ACRI) campaign submitted its petition signatures today in an effort to qualify for the November 2008 ballot, despite having obtained its signatures through pervasive racially-targeted voter fraud and criminal violations of Arizona election law.

"We are certain that ACRI will be disqualified," said Shanta Driver, national chair of BAMN. "We have amassed evidence, including from petition circulators themselves who are willing to step forward, of ACRI's pervasive racially-targeted voter fraud and criminal violations of Arizona election law. We will pursue our civil lawsuit. We also call on Attorney General Terry Goddard and Governor Janet Napolitano to launch an independent investigation." . . .

BAMN files lawsuit against "Arizona Civil Rights Initiative"!

Arizona Republic coverage: "Group fights affirmative-action ban"

Former Phoenix City Councilman Calvin C. Goode, defrauded Latina/o and black Arizona citizens, and the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) will file suit in state court Monday morning to stop the fraudulent "Arizona Civil Rights Initiative" (ACRI) from getting on the ballot.

"Tens of thousands of Latina/o, black, and Native American citizens of Arizona were defrauded and led to believe that by signing the 'American Civil Rights Initiative' (ACRI) they were banning racial discrimination and advancing the dreams of their children to have a better future," said Shanta Driver, National Chair of BAMN and an attorney. "They are angry that the ACRI stole their signatures as support for a petition whose sole aim is to eliminate affirmative action, which is the only way that their children will have an equal chance for a future. The duly elected public officials of Arizona have a duty to protect them, their children, all the citizens of Arizona, and democratic norms from systematic, racially-targeted voter fraud."

Get more info and read BAMN's lawsuit HERE

The BAMN Committee to Stop ACRI has launched a new Fraud Finder website with extensive video documenting the extensive, systematic voter fraud, physical assaults, and other illegal tactics that we are uncovering in the anti-affirmative-action ACRI campaign. ACRI is using deceptively-worded ballot language, signature gatherers who lie about the intent and results of the proposed initiative, and teams of well-paid out-of-state petitioners who are dishonestly representing themselves as Arizonans. The Arizona backers of the deceptively-named "Arizona Civil Rights Initiative" and their out-of-state political and financial backers are using tactics that echo the old Jim Crow—to establish the new Jim Crow in Arizona.

Forward this page to everyone you know. Demand that the news media in your area cover the Connerly campaign's fraud. The fraud and irregularities in Arizona are surely being replicated in the other states facing potential Connerly initiatives: Colorado and Nebraska.

Also, you yourself may be able to advance BAMN's investigation: check the new Fraud Finder site again in the next couple of days for the new "Faces of Fraud" section, where we will post up the faces of ACRI circulators. If you have seen any of them outside of Arizona, let us know. Out-of-state circulators are not allowed to circulate the ACRI, and any evidence that a circulator is from out-of-state invalidates all of that circulator's signatures.

Members of the media: if you would like a DVD copy of this footage, contact the BAMN COMMITTEE TO STOP ACRI at (602) 579-1370 or stopacri@gmail.com.

UPDATE FROM ARIZONA:
Successful speakout and press conference!

The BAMN Committee to Stop ACRI held a joint press conference with former Phoenix Councilman Calvin C. Goode and elected city officials, calling upon the community to unite against the ACRI's fraudulent petition campaign. KTAR ran a good article. (Photo from KTAR)

Watch the PRESS CONFERENCE.

UPDATE FROM ARIZONA:
¡Marcha!

The BAMN Committee to Stop ACRI held a successful press conference June 13 which got coverage from several television stations, giving us an opportunity to let the community know not to sign the ACRI's fraudulent petitions. See the KFYI news article.

Also watch the successful march on June 14. Residents stepped out of their homes and drove by honking their horns, showing support. We got out hundreds of flyers alerting the community that if you see an ACRI circulator in your neighborhood, drive them away! We must use our First Amendment rights to make sure no fraud is perpetrated in our communities! See the MARCH FOOTAGE and watch the SPEECHES.

UPDATE FROM ARIZONA:
Racist Voter Fraud Exposed!
STOP ACRI Campaign Scores Early Successes... JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!

After only a few days, we are starting to put dents in the "Arizona Civil Rights Initiative" (ACRI) campaign's petitioning operation! Activists with STOP ACRI (a ballot question committee sponsored by BAMN) are succeeding at blocking some of the ACRI petitioners, and on June 3, 2008, activists documented some of the ACRI campaign's racially-targeted voter fraud on videotape.

We have until JULY 3rd to stop ACRI from using racially-targeted voter fraud to qualify their anti-affirmative-action initiative for the November 2008 ballot. TAKE A STAND and JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!

See the REPORT AND VIDEO, and support the STOP ACRI campaign!

MARCH IN BERKELEY:
Stop the Deportation of the Berkeley Family:
No More Raids and Deportations!
Berkeley and Oakland Are Sanctuary Communities!

The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the Bay Area are an attack on our communities and must be stopped. On Friday, May 2, the day after thousands of people marched through Oakland in support of immigrant rights, sixty-three Latina/o immigrants were detained from cities around the Bay, including San Francisco. The following Tuesday, ICE agents picked up a parent of an Oakland school student and entered the home of a Berkeley High School alumni and his family -- insulting, arresting, and detaining mothers and grandparents...

The ICE's attempt to make immigrant and Latina/o students feel scared, isolated, and vulnerable and to divide our schools and communities completely backfired. Our direct action prevented the ICE from picking up students or kidnapping their parents. Instead of demoralizing or dividing us, the ICE action united us...

Get more information:  English  Español

Ward Connerly Defeated!
Affirmative Action is Preserved in Missouri!

On May 4, 2008, the new civil rights movement scored a great victory against the political forces that are trying to resegregate our nation. For months, right-wing racist forces, such as the anti-immigrant Minute Men, the Klan and others, aligned with Ward Connerly gathered petition signatures to try to qualify their anti-affirmative action measure for the Missouri ballot this November. Today they failed to turn in their petitions to the Secretary of State by the deadline.
Get more information

CALL TO ACTION:
Deal Ward Connerly & the Segregationists a NATIONAL Defeat!

Fresh out of the victory in Oklahoma, BAMN calls on students and activists all across the country who stand for equality and integration to join BAMN in Missouri, Arizona and Nebraska over the next 6 weeks in "Operation King's Dream"—an all-out effort to keep America on the road to social equality and progress.

Join and/or donate to the campaign! See the CALL TO ACTION

VICTORY IN OKLAHOMA!
Fraud Exposed, Connerly Withdraws Signatures!
One Down, Four to Go...

"BAMN (The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary), the national organization that has led the fight against Ward Connerly, and AWAKE (All Working to Keep and Achieve Equality), an organization that led the fight against Connerly's fraud in Oklahoma, forced the Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative (OCRI) to withdraw its petition to place an anti-affirmative action referendum on the Oklahoma ballot in 2008. . ."

See BAMN's press release