Arizona

Backers of Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action initiative on Friday abandoned their lawsuit to try to get the measure on the ballot. It had appeared to have enough to qualify, but was kicked off the ballot because of an unusually high rate of invalid signatures. The supporters of the measure were going back through signatures in Maricopa County, but ran out of time to go through all of them, in part because the county was providing them only two computers to do the work. They say they'll try again in 2010.

I'd be surprised if they can get the money. Connerly and his supporters have proven incapable of getting the basics of qualifying initiatives right. He had originally planned to have a similar initiative on the ballot in five states. But he has failed in three states, and his initiative in Colorado is in trouble. The only state he's made the ballot? Nebraska.

No fewer than six measures that may or may not be on Arizona's November ballot now face legal challenges. The Republic provides an overview.

Arizona's direct democracy is a mess. Signature gathering firms there are struggling to get valid signatures on initiative petitions. Three measures were knocked off the ballot because of low validity rates.

Now one of those initiatives -- a measure that would preemptively bar legislation such as that passed in Massachusetts (and pursued in California) for expanded health care coverage -- has received new life. A superior court judge ruled that some signatures marked invalid were, in fact, valid. When the new tally from a random sample was calculated, the initiative, Prop 101, had enough signatures to make the ballot, the Arizona Daily Star reports. This may not be the last world. Opponents could appeal.

In blockbuster democracy, there are always invalid signatures. People don't sign their own names. Forgery by gatherers can be a problem. Sometimes, people's signatures change over time, and no longer match registration cards filed decades ago. Or people mistakenly leave out part of their address, or sign on a petition from the wrong county. Some problems are to be expected. When initiative petition signatures are checked, about 70 percent of signatures will prove to be valid -- if the signature gathering operation was well run.

But in Arizona, the signature gathering efforts for multiple measures appear to have failed to meet that standard. According to the Arizona Republic, three measures appear to be in trouble. Two of them, one involving real estate transfers and another involving conservation, appear to have fallen short. A third, a transportation initiative, had so few valid signatures that it has failed to make the ballot. In random sampling, an estimated 42 percent of the signatures were invalid, suggesting that the people handling the gathering failed to do their job. Arizona's Secretary of State said that this was "among the largest overall invalid rates that I can recall ever seeing from a citizens initiative drive.” The initiative won't be on the ballot.

The Arizona Republic shows how self-interested the sponsors of that state's November ballot initiatives happen to be.

PUTTING RITZ ON HOLD? Citizens in Paradise Valley, Arizona, have forced a referendum on the city's approval of a new Ritz-Carlton resort there.

NORTH DAKOTA TAX CUT HAS SIGS: According to its sponsor, turn-in begins in two weeks on an initiative that would cut income tax rates in North Dakota.

UTAH HIGH COURT BARS REFERENDUM: Citizens in Draper, Utah, had wanted to force a referendum on a proposed light-rail route through their community. But the Utah Supreme Court has ruled that the approval did not change the law and thus is not subject to referendum.

ARIZONA HEAT: The attacks have begun against an Arizona initiative that would prohibit the state from adopting single payer health care.

NOT ENOUGH SIGS FOR ANTI-TRIAL LAWYER MEASURES: Two initiatives targeting trial lawyers failed to get the signatures to make the ballot in Oregon.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, says she thinks marriage is man-woman but that the ballot measure, which -- like its counterpart in California -- would add a same-sex marriage ban to the state constitution, is unnecessary. 

It appears that a new genre of referenda may be emerging from the Arizona dessert.

Communities across the southwest have been forced to adopt new dust control plans to comply with state and federal pollution laws. But the kind of longstanding businesses that kick up a lot of dust -- horse farms especially -- see these laws as a mortal threat. They appear to be taking to the local ballots to try to block these laws. First came a referendum in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was pulled from the ballot after a legal challenge. Now comes a referendum in Cave Creek.

Watch out, John McCain. It is now a crime to lie while discussing politics in the state of Arizona. Of course, this new law applies not to politicians, city or state officials, or anyone in a position of authority. The criminalizing of lying is limited to only that most powerful of people: signature gatherers.

This legislation, recently signed into law by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, is pure madness. Who will decide who is lying and who is not? Probably judges and elected officials who don't like whatever petition the gatherers are circulating. What's next? Do circulators have to travel with lawyers? Perhaps we need legislation requiring circulators to tape all their conversations, like detectives must do when defendatns are confessing?

Lying is part of politics. Fraud by signature gatherers -- faking names, faking signatures -- should be prosecuted criminally and fiercely. And yes, signature gatherers should be honest in how they describe petitions. But any criminal law governing the subject will be, at best, selectively enforced. The right to petition your government is fundamental in any free society. Take it away, and people will seek other, more destructive ways to change things they don't like. In the end, the voters who sign petitions must be responsible for what they sign.

Having failed to qualify his anti-affirmative action initiative in Oklahoma and Missouri, Ward Connerly's group gives $90,000 for signature gathering in Arizona; he's given $180,000 so far. That may sound like a lot, but it's not enough to qualify an initiative in the state. Keep an eye on this.