AZ Supreme Court rules that votes will count in open primary proposition

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that votes for an open primary ballot initiative will be tabulated, upholding the trial court ruling that even though almost 40,000 signatures were deemed invalid, any litigation was “moot” as the proposition had already been printed on the ballot.

“We are disappointed in the ruling of the court on this matter,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Our organization proved that the special interest groups attempting to hijack Arizona’s elections systems lacked the minimum number to qualify for the ballot to even be considered by voters in November.”

The Supreme Court ordered the trial court to look at the evidence of duplicated signatures provided by the AFEC, to which the report showed that 99% of the submitted signatures were indeed duplicates.

“Of the nearly 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,” reads a statement from the AFEC. “One individual had signed 15 times. All those signatures were included in the final tabulation by the Arizona Secretary of State and challenged in state courts.”

However, since the duplicated signatures were not reviewed before the Aug. 23 ballot printing deadline, Judge Frank Moskowitz ruled the case was “moot” and double counting of the signatures would be unconstitutional. This is because double counting of the invalid signatures would raise the constitutional threshold of valid signatures from 15% (ballot initiatives require 15% of the number of votes cast for governor during the last election cycle to make it on the ballot) to 15.2%, making the double counting of the signatures unconstitutional.

“This is an undeniable triumph for Arizona voters,” said Sarah Smallhouse, chairperson of the Make Elections Fair Committee. “Prop 140 is officially on the ballot and every vote will be counted. This ruling solidifies that our democratic process cannot be undermined by frivolous legal tactics.”

Prop. 140 would eliminate partisan primaries, giving all voters the same primary ballot. The two candidates with the highest number of votes would advance to the general election. Additionally, if more than two candidates are advancing, it would establish a ranked choice voting system. Other parts of the initiative would limit public funding of most campaigns and eliminate primaries for most city elections.

“We believe that all voters and all candidates should be treated equally and this current system doesn’t do that because we have partisan primaries,” said Chuck Coughlin, CEO and president of Highground Public Affairs, a lobbyist group backing the measure. “The problem with today’s system is 80% of all legislative or congressional candidates get elected in primaries where less than 30% of the electorate participates.”

AFEC warns that this proposition would enact “California-like” policies, giving power to the Secretary of State to decide how many candidates would qualify for the general election, result in some races where candidates from only one political party are on the ballot and increase the delay in election results.

Nevertheless, Prop. 140 will be on the ballot and voters will have the ability to vote it into law.