Arizona Newspaper Says Top-Two Initiative Backers are Expected to Abandon Initiative

Posted on by March 10, 2016
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According to this article in the Tucson Daily Star, proponents of a top-two initiative in Arizona are giving up, because Texas billionaires John and Laura Arnold do not agree with the strategy for passing the measure, and the Arnolds were the main source of money to pay to get the proposal on the November 2016 ballot.

The Arizona proponents felt that they were far more likely to pass top-two if the campaign for top-two was paired with another initiative, requiring organizations that spend money in campaigns to provide greater disclosure. But, according to the story, the Arnolds aren’t interested in the disclosure initiative and will not fund it.

Here is a second story, which has some additional information.

Illinois Democrat, Kept off Democratic Primary Ballot for County Office, Will Run as an Independent

Posted on by March 10, 2016
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Jack Schwartz is a candidate for State’s Attorney for Rock Island County, Illinois. According to this story, his petition to get on the Democratic primary ballot was ruled invalid, so he will instead run as an independent candidate. The petition was invalid because the circulator’s signature block was signed by both him and his wife, when only one signature should have appeared in that space.

Proponents of Maine Initiative File Lawsuit Over Petition Validity

Posted on by March 10, 2016
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On March 10, proponents of a Maine initiative to legalize marijuana filed a lawsuit over whether their initiative has enough valid signatures. The law requires 61,123 signatures. Proponents submitted 99,229. The Secretary of State determined that only 51,543 signatures are valid. If the Secretary is correct, the petition had a validity rate of only 51.9%, despite the fact that a very large proportion of Maine adult residents are registered to vote.

The lawsuit is Birks v Dunlap, Kennebec County Superior Court. It charges that the Secretary of State invalidated all the work of certain notaries public, on the grounds that he didn’t believe the signatures of the notaries on the petition are similar to the signatures on their voter registration forms. Ironically, some of the notarizes signed various petitions, and their signatures as voters were not invalidated. Here is the Complaint.