AMAC Members Score Early Advocacy Victories in 2022

AMAC members’ high level of advocacy engagement in 2021 has carried over into 2022. Passionate involvement by the membership combined with the coordinated efforts of AMAC Action have led to significant victories during the first two and one-half months of this year.

New Mexico

Democrats in the New Mexico legislature attempted to force through bad “voting rights” legislation during a short budgetary session. Some of the more egregious provisions in the legislation included:

• Allowing 17-year-olds to vote in some elections. These are minor children and cannot be held to the same standards as adults. It would have been irresponsible to let them vote.
• Allowing state agencies, such as the Motor Vehicle Department, to automatically register voters to vote without their consent.
• Allowing the Secretary of State to provide lists of eligible unregistered voters to third parties by request. This violates an individual’s right to privacy and exposes their personal information to increased risk of hacking and other cyber data breaches.
• Allowing the voting rights of felons to be restored automatically upon release from incarceration. These people should, at a minimum, complete parole/probation, and petition for the right to vote to be restored.
• Making absentee voting a permanent option. With questionable postal service, this would have increased the uncertainty of timely and secure ballot receipt and endanger New Mexican’s vote.

AMAC members in New Mexico rallied to AMAC Action’s calls-to-action and sent over 13,900 messages to their state legislature urging them to oppose the legislation. It was this loud voice of opposition from

AMAC members and other groups that ultimately led to no successful vote taking place on the legislation in the New Mexico Senate or on an amended version in the House.

Indiana

AMAC members in Indiana responded to a call-to-action campaign that resulted in over 1,100 messages sent to the state legislature to oppose insurance-driven managed care. The plan that was being considered by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration would have paid insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars per year to take over the state’s Medicaid program for the aged and disabled.

This would have slashed Medicaid funding for health care services by approximately $1 billion in the first three years of implementation. Under this plan, senior citizens in Indiana would have been at risk for diminished access to essential health care services and quality care in skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, and home and community-based care settings.

AMAC members urged the state to consider a local alternative which will keep Hoosier seniors and their health care providers in control of their health care decisions. AMAC Action Senior Vice President Andy Mangione also testified before the Indiana House Public Health Committee on behalf of the state’s 57,000 AMAC members to emphasize their concerns with this plan.

As a result of the opposition generated by AMAC members and other groups, the Indiana legislature passed H.B. 1002 which included language delaying the state’s ability to execute any contracts on managed Medicaid until January 31, 2023. However, this fight will continue and AMAC Action will be monitoring further developments.

Harris County, Texas

AMAC Action turned to AMAC members to fill the shortage of election workers for the March 1, 2022, primary in Harris County, Texas, the state’s most populous county.  Their response was immediate and decisive as an estimated 55 AMAC members stepped up to work the polls. Their caring, unselfish action to preserve election integrity in Harris County was necessary as numerous irregularities, including uncounted votes, damaged ballots, and technical issues with voting machines were discovered. These discrepancies ultimately led to the resignation of the Harris County elections supervisor.

Florida

AMAC members in the Sunshine State responded to an AMAC Action call-to-action by sending over 4,000 messages urging state legislators to support a package of election reform proposals backed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Thanks in part to the support from AMAC members, S.B. 524, was passed and heads to the Governor’s desk for his signature. Provisions of S.B. 524 include:

• The establishment an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Florida Department of State to investigate and defer matters for prosecution against alleged occurrences of election law violations or irregularities
• Move toward ID requirements for absentee vote-by-mail ballots
• Prohibit ranked-choice voting
• Clean voter rolls
• Create harsher penalties for ballot harvesting (trafficking)
• Deter non-citizen voting, illegal signature collection practices for ballot initiative petitions, and premature disclosure of election results
• Strengthen a previous ban to prohibit private funding of elections

What’s Next

The advocacy activity continues to heat up for 2022 as AMAC Action has more campaigns planned for the immediate future. In addition to sponsoring an Election Integrity Summit in Georgia, and summits forthcoming in Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, please look for call-to-action campaigns regarding securing elections in Michigan and exposing pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) business practices very soon.