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October 20, 2022Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As the statement below from Arizona Faith Leaders is one of principles that I believe all Americans can share, and these principles apply equally to all candidates and voters regardless of their political affiliation, I offer the statement for your prayerful consideration as we move forward in this important election season.
May God bless you abundantly,
+Edward J. Weisenburger
Faith Leaders United for Peaceful Elections in Arizona
In partnership with the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network
As faith leaders from across Arizona, we come together from different religious and political backgrounds to express our support for safe, fair, and secure elections. With early voting for the November election already underway, we are concerned by the hateful rhetoric and threats against election workers, activists, supporters of the candidates, public officials, and even places of worship.
The values of our faith traditions drive our belief in this cause. All of our constitutional freedoms, including our religious freedom, depend on the integrity of our elections – the foundation of American democracy.
We support the following fundamental principles for safe, secure, and fair elections and we ask everyone – from public officials to civic leaders, people in a position of power to voters everywhere – to commit to the same:
Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections
As a candidate, I am guided by the following principles:- Honest process: Cooperate with election officials, adhere to rules and regulations, and refrain from knowingly propagating falsehoods about the electoral process.
- Civil campaign: Encourage a peaceful election atmosphere during the pre-election, polling, counting, and post-election periods. Denounce any attempt to intimidate, harass, threaten or incite violence against opponents, their supporters, and election workers.
- Secure voting: Respect voters’ freedom to exercise their lawful rights to register and vote, free from interference, obstruction, or intimidation.
- Responsible oversight: Encourage political parties and others to train poll-watchers on the election process and appropriate roles and behaviors, responsibilities, and obligations.
- Trusted outcomes: Make claims of election irregularities in accordance with the law and acknowledge the legitimacy of the outcomes after the results have been certified and all contestations decided.
These principles are key to sustaining our healthy democracy and they are supported by a majority of Americans, but they are being threatened today as we enter a new election cycle. We invite everyone to join us in our support of the fundamental principles of our democracy.