How can I make my voice heard at the Arizona Legislature?

The RTS system is a website that allows the public to register opinions and voice comments on bills as they pass through the Arizona House and Senate. 

As Arizona’s 2025 legislative session begins this month, residents may be wondering how they can make their voices heard.

There are multiple ways Arizonans can step in and express their opinions about bills as the House and Senate debate and vote on them.

Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, a nonprofit that helps the public participate in local politics, has a variety of resources designed to help people dip their toes in these waters.

“I don’t think that most Arizonans understand how profoundly local politics affects our lives, most decisions that affect Arizonans are made at the local level,” said Melinda Iyer, CEBV’s co-founder and policy director. 

CEBV focuses on teaching people how to reclaim their voice and their power as citizens in local politics—in systems that are designed for lobbyists, rather than regular people. 

“We can’t all do everything, but each of us can do something,” Iyer said. “I got to where I am because I decided that I needed to do something, and I showed up, and I just kept showing up until I figured out what I could affect.” 

Using the Request to Speak (RTS) system

The RTS system is a website that allows the public to register opinions and voice comments on bills as they pass through the Arizona House and Senate. 

To create an RTS account, you have to go to the State Capitol or state offices in Tucson and use a kiosk in either the House or Senate the first time you use the RTS system. 

Once you’ve registered for an RTS account, you can leave comments on a bill from any computer with an internet connection. 

Yes, this is a hurdle that people must jump over in order to make their voice heard—making the RTS system inaccessible to many people who don’t have access to transportation to get to the state Capitol. 

CEBV is attempting to remove that barrier for some by offering to create an RTS account for people who fill out their form, on behalf of the person who submitted information using the form.

Once you have registered an opinion on a bill, other members of the public, including journalists and legislators, are able to get an idea of how much support or opposition there is for a bill. 

If you use RTS, you do not have to actually have to speak in support or opposition of a bill in a hearing—the RTS system allows you to choose whether or not you would like to speak before legislators during a committee meeting at the Capitol before a vote takes place, or simply have your name on the record with your stance on the bill.

How to speak during public comment in a committee

Legislators are assigned to committees presided over by committee chairs. Committees are separated by various subject areas, like education, finance, or public safety.

Bills are assigned to related committees; this is where legislators debate the merits of the bill, propose amendments to bills, and decide whether to send them to the larger body for a vote. If a bill does not pass through the committees it is assigned to, it is considered “dead.” 

This is also where legislators hear from people who have requested to speak through RTS and choose to speak in person in front of a committee.

Committee assignments for the House and Senate are available to view here. 

After someone has registered an RTS account, here’s how they can sign up to speak on a bill:

• Visit apps.azleg.gov and click “Sign On” in the upper right corner.
• Enter your email and password you used to create your RTS account. 
• Choose the “Request to Speak” tile, then “New Request” on the left column.
• Search the bill number you want to speak on, click “add request” on the right side.
• Select whether you are “for,” “neutral,” or “against” the bill.
• Choose “Yes” if you would like to speak during public comment in a committee hearing.
• Optional, write a comment on the bill — this may be read aloud during committee hearings.
• Plan to attend the committee in-person on the date and time listed on the screen once you select the bill you want to comment on. Legislators have until 24 hours before the bill is scheduled to be heard in committee to change the agenda, so make sure to check the agenda before making a trip to the capitol to make sure the bill is still scheduled to be heard.

Other resources

CEBV also offers a Letter to the Editor Toolkit, which outlines ho  to craft compelling messages and help others understand their point of view through traditional media like newspapers and television. CEBV even lists the best way to submit a letter to over 40 local news outlets. 

CEBV has helped over 15,000 people learn about and register for RTS accounts through video trainings and outreach events—it’s the organization’s bread and butter, and how it got its start in 2017, forming in the wake of the 2016 election.

“It’s sort of like drops of water on a rock—one individual drop of water is not going to change the shape of the rock,” Iyer said. “But…the more of us that express our opinions… can eventually lead to profound change.” 

On an even more local level, the organization offers a civics toolkit on local layers of government, from school boards to the Corporation Commission. 

Iyer calls creating a RTS account the “gateway drug to activism,” because “once you see what’s happening at the Arizona Legislature, it’s hard to look away,” she said.

Working with a Republican majority

With this Arizona Legislature having expanded its Republican majority, Iyer believes that the Request to Speak (RTS) process may not be as effective this year—but CEBV is taking this opportunity to teach people how to make their voices heard in other ways through different levels of state and local government. 

“If we don’t stay engaged, we get taken advantage of, because politicians count on public ignorance in order to get away with the things that they have been getting away with,” Iyer said.

While CEBV is nonpartisan, they are not neutral, and approach issues through a progressive perspective. 

What lawmakers say, regardless of their party, should not automatically be taken as fact—it’s a point of view that is often not designed to be balanced information, Iyer said. 

“‘What I say, usually, to people who are like, ‘well, I don’t do politics,’ I say, ‘well, in that case, politics is probably doing you,”’ Iyer said. 

READ MORE: Arizona’s 2025 legislative session begins next week: Here’s what you need to know