On June 15, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 1091, the Secretary of State’s omnibus election law bill. Among other things, the bill moves the independent presidential petition deadline to 60 days before the general election. This is in response to the 9th circuit decision in 2008 in Nader v Brewer, which declared the old June petition unconstitutional. The new proposal would place that petition deadline in the first week in September.
The bill also legalizes out-of-state circulators, but only for independent presidential petitions. The sponsor of the bill, Senator Jonathan Paton, will talk to the Secretary of State about possibly expanding this part of the bill so that out-of-state circulators could circulate all types of petition, not just independent presidential petitions.
Unfortunately, the bill also makes it illegal for circulators of any type of petition to assist signers by filling in their printed name, their address, and the date. Some voters have difficulty writing, and the old law permits the voter to sign the petition, but have the circulator complete the other blanks on the petition form.
As any one who has lived in Arid Zona, there are lots and lots of Mid Westerners in Phoenix and Tucson. They bring that Heart land duopoly mind set with them.
—– Donald Raymond Lake, late of Davis Monthan AFB
I think this is a good bill. The transcribing of signatures led to massive slamming. I know people who had 10 petitions on top of candidates led with one hook petition and then told voter to sign like 15 times down. They later hired people to transcribe the rest. However the residency requirement will get thrown out.
The part about petition circulators not being able to do fill ins is a bad thing. There are a lot of voters out there who are old and/or who have problems writing. There are also those who don’t feel like filling out their entire name and address or who are in a hurry or who may forget to fill something in by mistake.
Also, anyone who gets “slammed” into signing anything is stupid because all they have to do to avoid it is to read the freakin’ petitions. If they can’t do this or are too lazy to do this then that’s their fault.
Out of state petition circulators?? who cares where the circulators are from isn’t the important thing that only matters is that the PETITION SIGNER IS A VALID VOTER??? requring circulators to be residents is unconstitutional infringement on core political speech and only limits the right of qualified electors to have access to sign petitions
Andy said, “Also, anyone who gets “slammed†into signing anything is stupid because all they have to do to avoid it is to read the freakin’ petitions. If they can’t do this or are too lazy to do this then that’s their fault.”
Spoken like a true criminal. Blame the victim. Criminal mindset at work.