On December 16, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, refused to block a 2014 Arizona law that makes it more difficult for statewide initiatives to get on the ballot. The law says that after an initiative is submitted, if anyone challenges the sufficiency of that petition, any paid circulator or any out-of-state circulator who worked on the petition must appear in court to answer questions about their work. If they do not appear, then all the signatures they collected are deemed invalid.
The case against the law is still alive, but while the case continues, the law will be in effect. Here is the decision in Miracle v Hobbs, 2:19cv-4694. The restriction does not apply to petitions for candidates or new parties.
ONE Voter forms –
I want Prop [YEAR-Number] on the next general election ballots.
Sig, printed name. address, date signed
There is no reason why the paid signature gatherer can’t appear via videoconference, or Skype.
Also, what if they can’t find an instate resident petition circulator, or what if that person moves out of Arizona, or moves out of the country, or goes on a vacation outside AZ?
This is also bad because it will likely invite more petition challenges on flimsy pretexts.
The *law* is one more ANTI-Democracy machination by the AZ gerrymander oligarchs.
How many such machinations in the oligarchs playbook ???
— *appearance* of Democracy >>> NOOOO real Democracy.
—
PR and AppV and TOTSOP
What if the petitioner dies before the challenge? Will they dig him up Pope Formosus style?
I was actually going to pose the same question Brandon did here. What do they do if they can’t bring a petition circulator back to defend the signatures they collected because they passed away. Do they automatically disqualify the signatures that had been collected by the late petition circulator?