Albert Hale

State Sen. Albert HaleDespite a challenge by opponent Royce Jenkins, state Sen. Albert Hale (D-Window Rock) is staying on the ballot in the 2nd Legislative District. Jenkins failed to persuade a Maricopa County Superior Court judge that a number of signatures on Hale's nominating petition should be disqualified, based on the signers giving post office box numbers as their addresses.

Yet even though he tried to use the confusion over whether or not a lack of listed physical address can be used to disqualify a ballot signatory, Jenkins agreed with Hale that the system needs to be sorted out.

"It definitely needs to be fixed" said Jenkins of the process.

Congressional candidate Mary Kim Titla: Campaign photoOn Friday, the Maricopa County Superior Court will hear arguments on whether to include or expunge hundreds of signatures gathered by state Sen. Albert Hale (D-Window Rock), state Rep. Albert Tom (D-Chambers) and 2nd Legislative District House candidate Chris Deschene, on the basis that the signatories gave post office boxes for their addresses.

At a press conference outside the Capitol, 1st Congressional District candidate Mary Kim Titla was joined by Native American activists, former 3rd Congressional District candidate Annie Loyd and Arizona Democratic Party officials to denounce the challenges as discriminatory toward Native Americans, many of whom live on reservations and don't have physical addresses recognized by the U.S. Postal Service.

"Every single one of them does have a physical address," said Tupac Enrique Acosta, who is director of the Phoenix-based Tonatierra Community Development Institute. Acosta said the post office is to blame for not finding a better way to handle addresses on reservations. "These discrepancies have existed... since Arizona and New Mexico were territories," he said.