Arizona
To anyone who ever said, “I wouldn’t vote for that bum for a million bucks,” Arizona may be calling your bluff.
A proposal to award $1 million in every general election to one lucky resident, chosen by lottery, simply for voting — no matter for whom — has qualified for the November ballot.
The Arizona Supreme Court released its explanation of an earlier decision credited with dooming the 2008 TIME transportation ballot initiative and called on legislators to revamp initiative laws to ease the pre-election workloads of officials.
The TIME measure, which was expected to raise $42.6 billion over 30 years to address the state’s infrastructure needs, was dealt a mortal blow in August when the high court upheld a trial court’s decision that supporters of the measure had waited too long to challenge the actions of Secretary of State Jan Brewer.
The voters of Arizona resoundingly rejected on Tuesday a ballot proposition that would have gutted the initiative process.
Proposition 105, Majority Rules - Let the People Decide, was a bad joke, a measure that would have counted nonvoters on many resident-driven initiatives as “no” votes. Passage of the measure would have made it almost impossible to pass any future initiative that involves government spending.
Proponents of a ballot measure to restrict ballot measures call it a financial necessity. Opponents say it would deliver a near-crippling blow to a form of direct democracy that Arizona has used since it became a state. Proposition 105 on the Nov. 4 ballot would make it so that no initiatives that raise taxes or require new spending could take effect unless they’re approved by a majority of all registered voters.
Proponents of a ballot measure to restrict ballot measures call it a financial necessity. Opponents say it would deliver a near-crippling blow to a form of direct democracy that Arizona has used since it became a state.
Under the proposition on the Nov. 4 ballot, no initiatives that raise taxes or require new spending could take effect unless they’re approved by a majority of registered voters.
The TIME initiative crumbled after a lawsuit proved its supporting signatures were rife with forgery and fraud. Normally that would be the end of the story, but the Arizona Capitol Times reports that both proponents and opponents of the initiative are now demanding reform.
It’s official. Apache Junction is set for a City Council recall vote and a primary election in March. In a last-ditch effort, four council members and the mayor, all of whom are facing recalls, turned to the court, seeking judicial review of the Pinal County Recorder’s certification of petitions.
But county Superior Court Judge William O’Neil dismissed the request, finding there was not enough evidence to show the challenge was filed on time.
An initiative that would amend the Arizona Constitution to ban affirmative-action programs in the state was disqualified from the ballot Thursday by Secretary of State Jan Brewer.
Proposition 104, known as the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, becomes the third measure this year to be booted from the ballot because of failure to submit enough valid signatures to the state. Prop. 104 proponents vowed to appeal, probably early next week.
Measure seeks to allow state to sell land to local governments at market value
Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer last Friday disqualified Proposition 103 — the “Conserving Arizona’s Water and Land Initiative” — from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Proponents of the measure seek to reform the Arizona State Land Department and how its holdings are managed and sold.
According to the state constitution, the land department has to put lands up for sale at public auction.
An ambitious statewide transportation measure, championed by Gov. Janet Napolitano and a cadre of Arizona’s most powerful interest groups, has failed to make the November ballot.
Secretary of State Jan Brewer announced Monday that Proposition 203, the TIME initiative, had fallen thousands of signatures short of the 153,365 needed to qualify.
Nearly half of the 260,698 signatures submitted by last month’s deadline were tossed out.
The group backing an initiative on the November ballot to raise the state sales tax to fund transportation won a battle to get the proposal’s description rewritten in the voter information pamphlet.
The initiative would add a penny tax on each dollar spent to pay for 30 years’ worth of road and transit projects statewide. Supporters went to court over the wording in a state voter information pamphlet approved by a legislative committee, saying it would sway voters to say no.
Too many proposals and not enough time are adding up to heartburn for backers of several state ballot initiatives.
Some of the proposals that supporters hope to put before voters this November are chalking up higher-than-normal error rates, potentially imperiling their chances of getting on the ballot.
This could have consequences for ballot measures that seek to preserve state trust land, to increase the state sales tax to pay for transportation projects and to block any attempt to institute a real-estate-transfer tax.
Two voter initiatives designed to toughen Arizona illegal-immigration laws will not appear on the November ballot, the chairman of the campaigns told supporters late Tuesday night.
Backers of a proposed November ballot initiative hope to make it much more difficult for Arizona voters to raise taxes, fees or spending.
The initiative would require support from a majority of all registered voters - including people who didn’t show up at the polls - before a tax-raising initiative could become law.
Under current law, the majority of people who vote is sufficient.
An initiative drive to put the payday-loan industry out of business in Arizona may falter because of a split among supporters. Members of an organization dubbed Stop Payday Predators announced Friday that they no longer are backing the initiative. State Sen. Debbie McCune Davis, D-Phoenix, who is chairing that group, said she believes the money being raised to put that measure on the November ballot would be better spent killing an industry-backed initiative that would make payday-loan stores a permanent presence in Arizona.