Democrats want deadline for voter registration extended

Secretary of Snark ... Democrats struck a partisan nerve at the Arizona Secretary of State’s office when they made noise about the voter-registration deadline for the Nov. 8 election.

The deadline falls on Columbus Day, a holiday when state and federal offices, as well as a few county offices, are closed. They asked county elections officials statewide to consider adding another day, urging them to ignore a directive from the SOS that the Oct. 10 deadline should stick. (So far, most counties have been silent, but Mohave County, relying on its attorneys’ advice, is accepting registrations through Oct. 11. County officials say their practice has always been to roll the deadline a day if it falls on a weekend or holiday.)

But it was the request from House Minority Leader for an attorney general opinion that got the partisan neurons tingling at the SOS.

“It’s election season so it’s not surprising when political organizations do political things,” office said in a statement. “However, what is surprising is that Dr. Meyer’s letter to the Attorney General didn’t come on Meyer for Senate letterhead.”

The statement went on to explain why the office is standing by Oct. 10, and argued few voters would be inconvenienced since they can still register to vote online, holiday or no. Schooled over a text ... State Sen.

must get training in Arizona’s open-meetings law to settle a complaint over his activities as a member of the Pendergast Elementary School Board.

Specifically, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office found Quezada broke the confidentiality rules surrounding executive sessions when he sent a text message last year. In that message — which resulted in a complaint to the attorney general — Quezada disclosed the tenor of executive-session discussions over teacher-dismissal processes. He did not disclose what the board decided.

The attorney general concluded Quezada did not intentionally evade the law, nor does it consider his actions “an egregious violation.” But wrong is wrong, the office concluded, so off to open-meetings-law training he must go. He’s got 90 days to complete the task.

The violation is curious, given Quezada has been a school-board member for six years, a lawmaker for more than four years and is an attorney.

But Quezada said training only happens in a public official’s first year. He got training from the Arizona School Boards Association six years ago.

Irony alert! ... The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry pounced on a contract dispute to take a political whack at Proposition 206, the ballot measure proposing to raise the minimum wage.

The business group issued a news release and attached a lawsuit Sign Here Petitions filed this week against Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families.

“While the Pro-206 crowd says it’s the champion of the little guy, the small business that helped the initiative get to the ballot is taking a beating, according to a lawsuit,” the news release states. “Passage of Prop. 206 will disproportionately harm small businesses.According to this lawsuit, it looks like the damage is already starting.“

The company in the lawsuit states there are “several dozen” petition gatherers considering filing complaints against Sign Here Petitions because the company is unable to pay them for their work on the minimum wage measure. “Simply put, Sheriff Arpaio is being beyond ridiculous and needs to hang it up, go home and chase kids off his own lawn.” — State Democratic Party Chairwoman on Sheriff continued probe of President birth certificate. Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl and Alia Rau. Get the latest at