Gov. Doug Ducey has given his approval to yet another measure that will throw roadblocks in the path of Arizonans seeking to craft their own laws and constitutional amendments.
And, just for good measure, the new law also includes a procedural hurdle for would-be elected officials interested in challenging incumbents.
Existing statutes already require certain people who circulate petitions to register with the secretary of state. That includes anyone who is not an Arizona resident and all paid circulators, regardless of where they are from.
What’s changed is that these people now must provide a residence address, telephone number and email address along with an affidavit, sworn in front of a notary public, that the circulator meets other requirements and has not been convicted of certain offenses. And that person cannot begin to collect signatures until he or she gets a registration number, which must be put on any petition.
But the real key is that failure to do any of this means that any petitions collected by a circulator are not counted, regardless of whether the signatures are valid or not. Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, said all this is designed to give foes of ballot measures technical grounds to knock a measure off the ballot rather than have to actually debate the merits.
“This is clearly and blatantly and expressly an effort to increase the ability of special interest groups to litigate these initiative measures on purely technical deficiencies,” he said during debate.
That point was brought home by the fact that the legislation was backed by key business lobbying groups. Those are the same groups that have been pushing for changes in the law after they have been unable to stop voters from approving measures they do not like. Most recently that included boosting the state minimum wage from $8.05 an hour to $11 now, going to $12 next year.
Sen. Vince Leach, R-Tucson, who sponsored the legislation, said the new requirements are necessary to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
Foes noted, however, that lawmakers are unwilling to impose the same restrictions on those who circulate their nominating petitions.
Leach conceded the point. But he said the difference is that laws approved by voters become permanent, especially with constitutional bans on legislators making changes. By contrast, he said, voters can get rid of lawmakers every two years.
Before sending the bill to Ducey, lawmakers added another provision requiring candidates to file a “statement of interest” with the proper election office before collecting signatures, spelling out what office the person wants and the political party affiliation. That puts incumbents on notice when there is a challenge.
The new law also contains a hammer: Any signatures gathered before that public statement are invalid.
This isn’t the first change in procedures that Ducey has approved.
Two years ago, he signed a measure banning the practice of paying circulators based on the number of signatures they collect.
He also signed a law last year crafted by Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electric utility, which essentially would have allowed it to ignore any voter-approved mandate to generate a certain percentage of energy from renewable sources. As it turned out, that measure failed at the ballot.
The latest actions follow the decision several years ago by the Republican-controlled Legislature to enact a measure designed to overrule a state Supreme Court decision that initiative petitions need be only in “substantial compliance” with election laws, a standard that allows for technical flaws. Now the law spells out that courts can void petition drives and keep measures from going to voters if there is not “strict compliance” with all laws.
