Proposition 140, which would bring to Arizona jungle primaries and ranked choice voting, may not have enough valid signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballot.
The Arizona Supreme Court has instructed the Maricopa County Superior Court to examine the signatures and disqualify those for which there is clear and convincing evidence that they were duplicates. The next superior court hearing is scheduled for September 3.
There is evidence that about 40,000 of the 409,474 signatures submitted were duplicates. This evidence has been published by the Free Enterprise Club and may be viewed here.
If about 25,400 of those 40,000 questionable signatures are determined to be in fact duplicates, Prop 140 will be declared as having failed to gather the required number of signatures. Currently, that scenario appears to be quite likely.
Even though Proposition 140 is favored by several ultra-liberal politicians and activists, it is not popular with the Democrat Party. We see evidence of that by the position taken by the Democrat-leaning liberal organization Civil Engagement Beyond Voting (CEBV). They have come out against Proposition 140, as seen in their recently-published guide
In that assessment, the CEBV wrote as follows:
“We recommend a NO vote. CEBV believes the flaws of this measure outweigh its intentions. Though CEBV is open to reform of Arizona’s current primary system, Prop 140 – well-intentioned though it may be – has the potential to be considerably worse than what we have now.”
This position taken by an organization that favors the concept advanced by Proposition 140 could explain why supporters may have had trouble gathering signatures and may have had to resort to cheating to obtain the required number. Since the number of questionable signatures is close to 10% of those submitted, it is hard to believe that they were the result of an oversight.
