On August 17, the Arizona Supreme Court issued an order, putting the top-two open primary initiative back on the November ballot. The Court said it would issue an explanation later. The decision is unanimous. Thanks to Warren Severin for this news. Here is a newspaper story about the Supreme Court action.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Pingback: Arizona Supreme Court Puts Top-Two Open Primary Initiative Back on the Ballot | ThirdPartyPolitics.us
The AZ supreme court if not explaing why they’re putting this constitutional amendment on the ballot should seal their opinion to be revealed after the vote this November as to not make an endorsement for it.
#2, the Arizona Supreme Court won’t be expressing any opinion about the merits of the initiative. Nor will it be expressing any opinion about its constitutionality. The only issue in the case is whether the initiative violates the single-subject rule. That is a narrow, technical issue.
The Supreme Court action does not mean the “Open Government/Open Elections” initiative actually will be on the November ballot.
County election officials are still reviewing a random sample of initiative petition sheets to verify that there are at least 259,213 valid signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. And some preliminary numbers from the state’s largest county suggest the petition drive could fall short.
Matt Roberts, spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said after clearly invalid petitions were removed, that left more than 358,000 signatures. And a 33 percent failure rate, if that proves to be the final number, it would leave just about 240,000 valid signers, short of the 259,213 needed to qualify for the ballot.