All propositions on Arizona’s 2024 ballot come with a word of warning: Make sure this is what you really want to do.
The reason?
They are pretty much permanent. The Arizona Constitution spells out that anything approved by voters cannot be repealed by the Legislature. The issue would have to go back to voters at a future election for repeal or changes.
Lawmakers can make some alterations, but they have to “further the purpose’’ of the original measure. And it takes a vote of three-fourths of both the House and the Senate — 45 of 60 representatives and 23 of 30 senators — to do that.
Lawmakers have complained for years about what is known as the Voter Protection Act.
But what’s lost in their angst is exactly how the act came to be. Bottom line: Arizonans approved it in response to the Legislature itself, which decided more than two decades ago that voters didn’t know what they were doing and that their wishes could be overridden.
Legislators didn’t like it in 1996 when a citizens’ group put a proposition on the ballot allowing doctors to prescribe otherwise illegal drugs to treat a disease or relieve pain and suffering of a seriously ill or terminally ill patient. It also permitted those patients to possess the drugs without fear of state criminal prosecution.
Not just marijuana, though that was the focus. The wording included any other Schedule 1 drug including heroin, mescaline and LSD.
It was approved by nearly two-thirds of voters.
That didn’t last.
The following year lawmakers effectively suspended the Schedule 1 element, amending the voter-approved law to say it could take effect only if the medications had first been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That effectively put the law in Arizona back to where it had been.
Citizens went back to the streets with two petitions.
The first sought a referral of the 1997 legislative action. The Arizona Constitution not only gives voters the authority to make their own laws but also to put any Legislature-approved law on a future ballot where they get the last word.
And in 1998 voters overrode the 1997 law by a 3-2 margin.
That still wasn’t the end of it.
The same group behind the 1996 proposition and the override came up with something new.
Proposition 105 that year stripped the Legislature of the power to veto anything approved by voters. It also added the requirement for a three-fourths vote by lawmakers not only for amendments that further the purpose but also for any diversion of funds for any project authorized by voters.
It drew bipartisan support.
“The Legislature thwarting the will of the people seems to me the ultimate act of arrogance,’’ wrote Democrat Richard Mahoney at the time, a former secretary of state.
“Once an election takes place, votes can’t be thrown away just because a few politicians don’t like the results of an election,’’ said Joe Arpaio, then the Republican sheriff of Maricopa County. “I believe Arizona voters are smart enough to know what they are voting for.’’
Proposition 105, the Voter Protection Act, was approved as a constitutional amendment, by a 52-48 margin.
There have been efforts since then by lawmakers to get out from under its provisions.
In 2016 Republican J.D. Mesnard, then a state representative, sought to put a partial repeal on the ballot. It would not have allowed lawmakers to overturn previously approved measures. But it would have permitted repeal of future ballot measures if lawmakers could get approval of a certain number of senators and representatives.
“People want us to be effective,’’ Mesnard said at the time. “Our ability to be effective is becoming diminished because of the tentacles of Voter Protection that are spreading throughout our ability to modify things.’’
But Sierra Club lobbyist Sandy Bahr told lawmakers there’s another — and simpler — solution if they believe a law enacted by voters needs to be altered or repealed outright: Put it on the ballot and make the case for voters to approve the change.
Mesnard’s proposal never made it to the ballot: After being approved in the House it died in the Senate.
Lawmakers took a slightly different tack with a 2021 proposal. It would have left the Voter Protection Act intact but given lawmakers permission to effectively rewrite an entire voter-enacted law if any part, no matter how small, were declared illegal or unconstitutional by a court.
Then-Sen. Vince Leach, R-Tucson, lined up every Republican in the House and Senate to put the issue on the 2022 ballot. But voters were having no part of it, rejecting Proposition 128 by a margin of close to 2-1.
Oh, and as to that 1996 — and reenacted in 1998 — drug medicalization measure? It never actually took effect.
That has to do with the fact that the law would have required doctors to “prescribe’’ those otherwise illegal drugs. And no doctor apparently was willing to risk losing prescription privileges, which can be taken away by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
It took until 2010 until voters approved a suitable alternative. That law allows doctors to “recommend’’ marijuana to their patients, something doctors were willing to do.
The law was broadened even more a decade later when voters approved the recreational use of marijuana by adults.
