PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona House Republicans are joining their Senate counterparts in considering whether to revive stripped out parts of a bill targeting citizen initiatives that was signed by Gov. Doug Ducey.
A proposal that emerged in the House on Tuesday revives parts of House Bill 2404 that were removed before it was sent to the governor last week. That proposal makes it illegal to pay petition circulators for each signature they gather and makes it easier for opponents to sue to block the measure.
The new House proposal set for a hearing Wednesday adds a slew of registration and penalty provisions on those circulators. It also makes a committee pushing an initiative responsible for legal violations committed by a circulator and makes a series of other changes.
People were interested in these podcasts
Meanwhile, Republicans on a Senate panel on Tuesday advanced another provision over Democrats’ objections that was stripped out of HB2404 in February that makes initiatives subject to a tougher legal standard, making it easier to challenge them in court.
The provision added as a “strike-everything” amendment to HB2244 says the language in the proposed measure and petitions that qualify it for the ballot are subject to a “strict compliance” standard rather than “substantial compliance.”
That will allow citizen’s initiatives or the signatures gathered to get them on the ballot to be thrown out for mere paperwork or language errors, even if the proposed law complies with other respects to the law. The “substantial compliance” standard now in place allows such minor errors if the intent of measure remains clear.
Republican Sen. Debbie Lesko of Peoria said her proposal simply ensures that all the legal requirements are met.
“I don’t know why there’s any laws, if we have an Arizona Constitution that says we have to do something a certain way, and everybody knows about that up front …. and yet people don’t follow it and just get on the ballot,” she said. “I think that’s wrong.”
The efforts are all pushed by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has made changes to initiatives a top priority after voters passed a minimum wage increase in November.
Democrats and voting rights advocates call the Chamber-backed changes a full-out assault on citizens’ right to write their own laws that have been in the state Constitution since statehood.
“You pair strict compliance with all the rules they’ve put on in the last few years and the rules they’re looking at now and it gets to be nearly impossible,” said Joel Edman, executive director of the voting rights group the Arizona Advocacy Center.
The developments come just days after Ducey signed a bill that bans paying petition circulators for each signature they gather and make it easier to bring a legal challenge to initiatives.
The bill was originally a catch-all for a series of proposals tightening requirements for paid workers when they’re collecting voter signatures to qualify an initiative or referendum for the ballot. It also required petition companies to post a bond, required payments for circulators to register, and created a fund to enforce violations and other changes.
The provisions were stripped out by House Speaker J.D. Mesnard in February after the measure became a lightning rod for criticism by voting rights advocates and Democrats but most are now being revived.
Testifying in the Senate Appropriation Committee, Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club said the changes would make it even more difficult to get initiatives on the ballot. The panel approved the measure on a 6-4 party-line vote.
“We certainly understand why the Legislature wants to make it more difficult for the citizens to engage in the citizen’s initiative process,” Bahr said. “Like I said before, these provide a way for us to make law without going through the Legislature.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.