Carolyn McCorkle
The Sun Lakes Republican Club will feature “Election Transparency”, at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the Navajo Room of the Sun Lakes Country Club, 25601 S. Sun Lakes Blvd., Sun Lakes 85248. Our mission is “Promoting an Informed Electorate Through Education.” Light desserts will be provided to enhance your evening’s enjoyment.
The public is invited to hear our keynote speaker State Representative Alex Kolodin, candidate for Ariz. Secretary of State, and our three Legislative District 13 State Representative candidates: Chandler mayor Kevin Hartke, Debra Schinke, and Janet Weninger. Please arrive early to be assured of seating!
Our esteemed State Representative Jeff Weninger will kick off the meeting with critical updates on legislation and the budget process, as well as referrals to the November ballot. He is also a candidate for Chandler City Mayor.
The State Representative Forum will offer the opportunity for you to address your questions to the three Republican candidates running for the two open seats in our District, after they present their qualifications.
Secretary of State candidate Alex Kolodin is an election lawyer, small business owner, and State Representative for Legislative District 3. Alex has been practicing election law in Ariz. for over a decade. In 2014, as a rookie lawyer, Alex litigated one of the first cases that established that election–related metadata stored on central count computers was a public record.
Why does election integrity and transparency matter? In 2024, a mistake by Congress threatened to disenfranchise every Arizona voter in the presidential election. Few thought the problem could be solved in Arizona’s overheated partisan environment. Alex Kolodin stepped up and not only fixed it but sponsored and passed a 29–page election reform package that created legally binding rules for validating the identity of early voters, improved the chain of custody for early ballots, helped ensure that valid provisional ballot voters were not disenfranchised, and required the audit logs for elections systems to be publicly posted on the internet.
Starting in 2026, voters will enjoy faster results due to this package requiring elections officials to allow voters who drop off their mail-in ballots at the polls to show ID and, therefore, bypass the time intensive signature verification process. Recently, as chair of the select committee on election iIntegrity and Florida style voting systems, Kolodin has been working to pass security measures that would further speed up election results.
Alex was named a finalist for the national “Best Legislator” award by the state freedom caucus network. Alex is a former Reagan Fellow at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.
For more information, visit our web site www.SunLakesRepublicanClub.org or contact Mike Tennant, 262-880-4620.