The last seven days

Send in your ballot! … On to the next election …. And maybe they got lost?

We’re now just one week out from voters in six counties deciding who will replace Raúl Grijalva in Congress.

The deep-blue Congressional District 7 is considered a safe seat for Democrats, but voters have several choices on their mail-in ballot: Grijalva’s daughter and Democratic nominee Adelita Grijalva, Republican Daniel Butierez, Green Party nominee Eduardo Quintana and political performance artist Richard Grayson with the No Labels Party.

Most recently, Butierez and Grijalva debated at a televised forum organized by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission and held at Arizona Public Media’s studios.

For Tucson-area voters, the Pima County Recorder’s Office recommends that you mail your ballot in today, which is probably good advice for those holding ballots for the special election in the other five counties as well.

If you miss today’s deadline, you can still cast your ballot. Pima County is operating seven early voting sites this week. There will also be several locations open for emergency voting on September 20 and 22. And, of course, you can show up on Election Day to drop off or cast your ballot at any polling location.

For Pima County residents, you can track your ballot here.

Live outside of Pima County? Here is a quick link to check in with your county recorder ahead of the special election.

• Cochise County

• Maricopa County

• Pinal County

• Santa Cruz County

• Yuma County

As of Friday, the Recorder’s Office posted that it had already received more than 41,500 mail-in ballots. By comparison, the July 15 primary saw more than 58,000 total ballots cast.

Special elections almost never draw the same kind of crowds as a regular election. Turnout usually ends up being just a fraction of what you’d see in a normal November election.

So who actually shows up?

It’s typically a smaller pool of voters who are highly motivated, more partisan and very tuned in to politics.

And one more wrinkle: How fired up each party’s base feels really matters. Party enthusiasm can swing these elections in ways that don’t always line up neatly with the party registration — though it would take one heck of a swing to turn CD7 red.

Still, we're interested to see how independents vote next week, as that may provide some insight into which direction they're heading as we head into 2026.

We’ll be covering the election on Tuesday night on Bluesky.

The Secret Service is investigating a Pima County deputy for their social media comments about the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced in a short video statement that he placed Deputy Ramon Hernandez on paid leave while the Secret Service conducts its criminal investigation.

Nanos said the Secret Service contacted his office on Monday to inform him it was investigating Hernandez after a number of conservative activists, including LibsofTikTok, highlighted Hernandez’s social media post.

“Charlie only promoted hate, racism,” Hernandez reportedly wrote. “As for Charlie, that’s his own karma.”

PCSD will perform a separate internal probe into Hernandez after the federal agency concludes its report, Nanos said.

"This sheriff and this department does not, and will never, condone violence of any kind," Nanos said.

Pulling ahead: As expected, Democratic candidates for seats on the Tucson City Council are outraising their Republican opponents by a wide margin, thanks in part to public funds, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. A candidate forum hosted by the NAACP is scheduled for Monday, and all five candidates said they’d attend. Early voting starts Oct. 8 for the Nov. 4 general election.

Big Brother U: Students and faculty at the University of Arizona are protesting the school’s use of Flock cameras on nearby streets, Arizona Luminaria’s Yana Kunichoff reports. A big source of concern for the protesters is the use of the cameras to aid in immigration-related arrests, and that UA officials didn’t disclose to the public that they were using the Flock cameras. UA officials said they delete the data from the cameras after 30 days.

No more kissing babies: The longstanding tradition of politicians meeting with constituents at town halls or eating breakfast at diners was already dwindling by the time Charlie Kirk was shot last week, but now it’s on life support, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. As the hostility ramps up, local Republican candidates like Janet “JL” Wittenbraker are even seeing vandals put stickers that read “Make assassinations great again” on their campaign signs.

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Leveling up: Oro Valley officials are considering new taxes and fees to make up for a shortfall in sales tax and state-shared revenues, KOLD’s Renee Romo reports. They’re trying to shore up public safety and road maintenance by raising tax rates to levels comparable to Tucson and Marana.

Hundreds of new state laws are going to take effect on Sept. 26 and we’d like to help you get a handle on what that means for you (and hopefully avoid getting into trouble).

To that end, we’re going to highlight some of those new laws in our daily newsletters. Think of it as a cheat sheet for being a law-abiding citizen.

Psssttt… We suggest keeping track of these flash cards. We heard a pop quiz might be on the horizon.

While we’re at it, we want to show you Skywolf, our legislative tracking software that makes it a breeze to learn about state laws.

If you’re a policy pro who hasn’t checked out Skywolf yet, you’re in luck! We’re doing a series of webinars you can pop into to hear from your colleagues about how Skywolf can help your legislative workflow.

• If you work for a state agency, join us this Thursday at 10 a.m. to see Skywolf in action and hear from a state agency about how it’s benefiting their public policy work.

• If you’re a lobbyist or policy pro for a nonprofit or advocacy group, join us this Friday at 10 a.m. to hear from a lobbying pro about how they use Skywolf to stay on top of the madness at the Capitol.

• On Thursday, September 25, we’ll show you a workflow designed specifically for policy professionals working at municipalities, and on Friday, September 26, we’ve got a webinar tailored for associations.

A group calling itself the “Arizona Armed Milita” didn’t make it to Tucson City Hall on Monday for a peaceful protest.

City and county employees were warned the group might show. Instead, Presidio Park next to City Hall was filled with journalists, police officers and a handful of counter-protesters.

Maybe we shouldn’t have taken so seriously the word of a militia that can’t spell “militia” correctly.