PHOENIX — Arizona groups still trying to put measures on the November ballot will need to get signatures the old-fashioned face-to-face way despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday rebuffed pleas by several organizations to allow them to use an existing online signature-gathering system available to candidates.
The court, in its 6-1 order, was not swayed that the plea was for special permission for this year only because of the pandemic. Only Justice Ann Scott Timmer voted to grant the request.
The court gave no reason for its decision.
But Attorney General Mark Brnovich, whose office argued against allowing the change, said the justices could not provide the relief sought.
“Arizona has had a provision in its constitution since statehood that provides that signatures in the initiative process have to be done by an actual human being,” he said.
The online E-Qual system, by definition, has no circulators, with supporters “signing” online petitions by providing identifying information through a website maintained by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Wednesday’s action may seal the fate of initiative drives that had not already collected sufficient signatures by the middle of March when the virus erupted and Gov. Doug Ducey closed many businesses and directed Arizonans to stay home.
A similar request was rebuffed by a federal judge, in a decision upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
That leaves the question of what will be on the ballot for voters to consider.
One measure that appears to have at least the bare minimum 237,645 signatures needed is the Smart and Safe Arizona Act, which seeks to legalize recreational use of marijuana for adults.
Spokeswoman Stacy Pearson said circulators already have more than 300,000, enough to provide a margin should some signatures turn out to be invalid.
Less clear are the fates of two other measures.
One would put a 3.5% surcharge on taxable income above $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for couples to raise about $940 million a year for public education.
The other would allow judges to impose shorter prison sentences than now required under “truth in sentencing” laws, and permit inmates sentenced for non-dangerous offenses to be released after serving 50% of their time, versus the current 85%.
Pearson, who represents both, said the signature gathering continued through the governor’s stay-home order. She said circulators put the petitions on a clipboard, stepped back, let the person sign it in their presence, and then picked it up.
She said while neither has gathered sufficient signatures, the deadline to file petitions is not until July 2. And Ducey just announced he is lifting his stay-home order.
Other proposals, though, are dead.
Those include the Save Our Schools Act, which sought to ask voters to limit the number of vouchers of state tax dollars that parents can use to send their children to private and parochial schools.
It would have prohibited the state from issuing vouchers to more than 1% of total children enrolled in public schools. With about 1.1 million students in traditional district and charter schools, that would have set the cap at about 11,000.
“We had a robust start and, had that continued, we would have been fine,” said Dawn Penich-Thacker, one of the organizers. She also said the group did not have a lot of money to hire paid circulators.
“Our own network is passionate about the issue,” Penich-Thacker said. “But they’re not comfortable going door to door, not social distancing, and we’re not going to ask them to do that.”
Also dead is a proposal that was pushed by the National Credit Alliance to overturn virtually all laws that now limit annual interest charges on loans to 36% a year. Sean Noble, who managed the campaign for the lenders, had argued that interest rates should be a free-market decision.
Noble envisions a similar effort for the 2022 ballot.
