PHOENIX β A court decision Thursday left backers of a ban on βdark moneyβ further from their goal of getting the measure on the November ballot.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders rejected arguments by attorney Kim Demarchi that Secretary of State Michele Reagan improperly and illegally disqualified some petitions submitted in July.
Sanders said Reagan acted within the lawβs requirements when petitions do not conform with legal requirements.
Demarchi also failed to persuade Sanders to require Reagan to count the signatures on petitions submitted by people who, according to foes of the initiative, were not legally qualified to circulate them.
Attorney Kory Langhofer, who represents initiative foes, had alleged that some of the petition circulators were convicted felons while others failed to provide legally required addresses.
Sanders
said Langhofer issued valid subpoenas for each of the people whose eligibility to circulate petitions was in question. When they did not show up in court, Sanders said she had no choice under Arizona law but to declare that all signatures collected by each of them could not be counted.
Demarchi said she was still tallying the numbers. But Langhofer said he believes the ruling, unless overturned, leaves initiative proponents about 8,000 signatures short of what they need.
The ruling is the second bit of bad news for the initiative in as many days. On Wednesday, Reagan said the random sample of signatures reviewed by the 15 county recorders showed the measure came up 2,071 short of the 225,963 valid signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot.
The initiative is designed to overturn various laws enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature that allow certain groups to influence state and local political races without disclosing their donors.
It would put a provision in the Arizona Constitution spelling out that the identity of any individual who gave at least $2,500 must be listed on financial disclosure reports. Failure to comply would result in a fine equal to three times the amount that was at issue.
Langhofer represents officials involved with several of the βsocial welfareβ groups that now are exempt from disclosure but would be subject to it if the initiative were to pass.
Thursdayβs ruling does not end the legal battle.
Aside from Demarchiβs lawsuits against county recorders, she is challenging the constitutionality of two laws that put additional hurdles in the path of those trying to put measures on the ballot.
The larger issue is a 2016 law that requires all initiative petitions be in βstrict complianceβ with each and every election law. Prior to then, courts had ruled that petitions need be only in βsubstantial complianceβ with the law.
Demarchi argued that the Republicans who approved the change were interfering with the constitutional right of people to propose their own laws.
