On Friday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the signature challenge lawsuit against Proposition 140, which was facing a potential deadline due to the printing of ballots, may continue to ensure that the nearly 40,000 duplicate signatures are examined and removed from the final tally. If removed, the measure will lack the minimum number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot. Prop 140 is seeking to enact a California-style election scheme built around ranked choice voting and jungle primaries.
The Court ordered that since ballots are being printed as of August 23, the proposition should still be included on the ballot. However, the Court warned that if the judicial system disqualified Prop 140 in the coming weeks, an injunction would be issued to prohibit any votes from being counted for this specific measure.
“I am grateful for this thoughtful decision from the Arizona Supreme Court,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “At no time did the trial court judge or the committee in favor of the initiative provide evidence as to why these signatures were not duplicates, but instead relied on a strategy of obstruction to run out the clock. The lateness of this challenge did not have to be the case if the lower court had only adhered to the Supreme Court’s earlier directive for all duplicates to be removed from the qualifying count. For any ballot measure – but especially one that would fundamentally transform our elections systems – Arizonans deserve complete confidence that our courts are applying all laws fairly and justly.”
As the Court wrote, “There is no statutory directive that a court resolve an election challenge like this one before the ballot printing deadline. Regardless, this Court, and indeed the trial court, has consistently endeavored to resolve initiative challenges before the ballot printing deadline… But the courts’ role is to dispense justice. Courts cannot be forced to rule rashly to meet a ballot printing deadline or provide the parties with certainty.”
Of the 40,000 duplicates that were included when the Prop 140 Committee submitted their signatures to the Secretary of State, around 250 people had signed five or more times. One individual had signed 15 times. All those signatures were included in the final tabulation by the Arizona Secretary of State. The lawyers for Prop 140 continue to deny, without evidence, that any of these signatures are duplicates.
“This isn’t a debate about dubious matches or concerns of same family members with the same name being confused as a duplicate,” Mussi continued. “All the duplicates submitted to be removed were exact name and address matches that aligned with what was on the voter file. Under state law, you are only allowed to sign a petition once, so they should have been removed. Instead, thousands of people were allowed to sign the initiative petition sheets multiple times, and those signatures were counted.”
