On August 31, the Arizona Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over the validity of petitions to recall State Senate President Russell Pearce. See this story. The lower court had agreed that the petition is valid. If the State Supreme Court agrees with the lower court, Arizona will then hold its first recall for a state legislator. Senator Pearce does not contest the point that the recall petition was signed by a sufficient number of registered voters, but his lawsuit focuses on technical deficiencies concerning the petition.

The Arizona Supreme Court still hasn’t decided whether to hear another election law case, the one over whether the state has the authority to tell Tucson that the city must use non-partisan elections. In the State Supreme Court, that case is State of Arizona v City of Tucson, cv11-0150-pr.