Arizona Repeal Proposition 105 Requirements for Initiatives and Referendums Amendment (2018)
| Arizona Repeal Proposition 105 Requirements for Initiatives and Referendums Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 6, 2018 | |
| Topic Direct democracy measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
The Arizona Repeal Proposition 105 Requirements for Initiatives and Referendums Amendment was not on the ballot in Arizona as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.
This measure would have repealed all provisions of Proposition 105, also known as the Voter Protection Act, passed in 1998.[1] Proposition 105 prohibited the state legislature from repealing voter-approved ballot initiatives and referendums. Proposition 105 also required a three-fourths vote in both legislative chambers and intent to further the purpose of a measure to amend a voter-approved ballot initiative or referendum. Proposition 105 provided that the legislature is allowed to refer measures superseding or repealing initiatives or referendums to the ballot for voter approval.[2]
This amendment would have added the following language that Proposition 105 repealed back into the constitution: "The veto power of the governor, or the power of the legislature, to repeal or amend, shall not extend to initiative or referendum measures approved by a majority vote of the qualified electors."[1] In Adams v. Bolin (1952), the Arizona Supreme Court interpreted this language to mean that laws approved by a majority of registered voters, rather than by a simple majority of votes cast, could not be repealed or amended by the legislature. According to John D. Leshy, no initiated state statute gained approval from a majority of registered voters between 1914 and 2010, meaning no initiated statute was protected from legislative action under the provision.[3]
This amendment was known as House Concurrent Resolution 2002.[1] An amendment, titled House Concurrent Resolution 2007, to repeal just the provisions relating to referendum in Proposition 105 was also proposed in the legislature. Both were proposed by Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-23), and both died in committee during the 2017 legislative session.
Text of measure
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article 4, Arizona Constitution
The measure would have amended Section 1 of Article 4 of the Arizona Constitution. The following underlined text would have been added and struck-through would have been text deleted:[1]
Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.
(1) Senate; house of representatives; reservation of power to people. The legislative authority of the state shall be vested in the legislature, consisting of a senate and a house of representatives, but the people reserve the power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution and to enact or reject such laws and amendments at the polls, independently of the legislature; and they also reserve, for use at their own option, the power to approve or reject at the polls any act, or item, section, or part of any act, of the legislature.
(2) Initiative power. The first of these reserved powers is the initiative. Under this power ten per centum percent of the qualified electors shall have the right to propose any measure, and fifteen per centum percent shall have the right to propose any amendment to the constitution.
(3) Referendum power; emergency measures; effective date of acts. The second of these reserved powers is the referendum. Under this power the legislature, or five per centum percent of the qualified electors, may order the submission to the people at the polls of any measure, or item, section, or part of any measure, enacted by the legislature, except laws immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or for the support and maintenance of the departments of the state government and state institutions; but to allow opportunity for referendum petitions, no act passed by the legislature shall be operative for ninety days after the close of the session of the legislature enacting such measure, except such as require earlier operation to preserve the public peace, health, or safety, or to provide appropriations for the support and maintenance of the departments of the state and of state institutions; provided, that no such emergency measure shall be considered passed by the legislature unless it shall state in a separate section why it is necessary that it shall become immediately operative, and shall be approved by the affirmative votes of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the legislature, taken by roll call of ayes and nays, and also approved by the governor; and should such measure be vetoed by the governor, it shall not become a law unless it shall be approved by the votes of three-fourths of the members elected to each house of the legislature, taken by roll call of ayes and nays.
(4) Initiative and referendum petitions; filing. All petitions submitted under the power of the initiative shall be known as initiative petitions, and shall be filed with the secretary of state not less than four months preceding the date of the election at which the measures so proposed are to be voted upon. All petitions submitted under the power of the referendum shall be known as referendum petitions, and shall be filed with the secretary of state not more than ninety days after the final adjournment of the session of the legislature which shall have passed the measure to which the referendum is applied. The filing of a referendum petition against any item, section, or part of any measure shall not prevent the remainder of such measure from becoming operative.
(5) Effective date of initiative and referendum measures. Any measure or amendment to the constitution proposed under the initiative, and any measure to which the referendum is applied, shall be referred to a vote of the qualified electors, and shall become law when approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon and upon proclamation of the governor, and not otherwise.
(6) (A) Veto of initiative or referendum Veto and repealing power. The veto power of the governor shall not extend to an initiative measure approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon or to a referendum measure decided by a majority of the votes cast thereon. The veto power of the governor, or the power of the legislature, to repeal or amend, shall not extend to initiative or referendum measures approved by a majority vote of the qualified electors.
(6) (B) Legislature's power to repeal initiative or referendum. The legislature shall not have the power to repeal an initiative measure approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon or to repeal a referendum measure decided by a majority of the votes cast thereon.
(6) (C) Legislature's power to amend initiative or referendum. The legislature shall not have the power to amend an initiative measure approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon, or to amend a referendum measure decided by a majority of the votes cast thereon, unless the amending legislation furthers the purposes of such measure and at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the legislature, by a roll call of ayes and nays, vote to amend such measure.
(6) (D) Legislature's power to appropriate or divert funds created by initiative or referendum. The legislature shall not have the power to appropriate or divert funds created or allocated to a specific purpose by an initiative measure approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon, or by a referendum measure decided by a majority of the votes cast thereon, unless the appropriation or diversion of funds furthers the purposes of such measure and at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the legislature, by a roll call of ayes and nays, vote to appropriate or divert such funds.
(7) Number of qualified electors. The whole number of votes cast for all candidates for governor at the general election last preceding the filing of any initiative or referendum petition on a state or county measure shall be the basis on which the number of qualified electors required to sign such petition shall be computed.
(8) Local, city, town or county matters. The powers of the initiative and the referendum are hereby further reserved to the qualified electors of every incorporated city, town, and county as to all local, city, town, or county matters on which such incorporated cities, towns, and counties are or shall be empowered by general laws to legislate. Such incorporated cities, towns, and counties may prescribe the manner of exercising said powers within the restrictions of general laws. Under the power of the initiative fifteen per centum percent of the qualified electors may propose measures on such local, city, town, or county matters, and ten per centum percent of the electors may propose the referendum on legislation enacted within and by such city, town, or county. Until provided by general law, said cities and towns may prescribe the basis on which said percentages shall be computed.
(9) Form and contents of initiative and of referendum petitions; verification. Every initiative or referendum petition shall be addressed to the secretary of state in the case of petitions for or on state measures, and to the clerk of the board of supervisors, city clerk, or corresponding officer in the case of petitions for or on county, city, or town measures; and shall contain the declaration of each petitioner, for himself, that he is a qualified elector of the state (and in the case of petitions for or on city, town, or county measures, of the city, town, or county affected), his post office address, the street and number, if any, of his residence, and the date on which he signed such petition. Each sheet containing petitioners' signatures shall be attached to a full and correct copy of the title and text of the measure so proposed to be initiated or referred to the people, and every sheet of every such petition containing signatures shall be verified by the affidavit of the person who circulated said sheet or petition, setting forth that each of the names on said sheet was signed in the presence of the affiant and that in the belief of the affiant each signer was a qualified elector of the state, or in the case of a city, town, or county measure, of the city, town, or county affected by the measure so proposed to be initiated or referred to the people.
(10) Official ballot. When any initiative or referendum petition or any measure referred to the people by the legislature shall be filed, in accordance with this section, with the secretary of state, he shall cause to be printed on the official ballot at the next regular general election the title and number of said measure, together with the words "yes" and "no" in such manner that the electors may express at the polls their approval or disapproval of the measure.
(11) Publication of measures. The text of all measures to be submitted shall be published as proposed amendments to the constitution are published, and in submitting such measures and proposed amendments the secretary of state and all other officers shall be guided by the general law until legislation shall be especially provided therefore.
(12) Conflicting measures or constitutional amendments. If two or more conflicting measures or amendments to the constitution shall be approved by the people at the same election, the measure or amendment receiving the greatest number of affirmative votes shall prevail in all particulars as to which there is conflict.
(13) Canvass of votes; proclamation. It shall be the duty of the secretary of state, in the presence of the governor and the chief justice of the supreme court, to canvass the votes for and against each such measure or proposed amendment to the constitution within thirty days after the election, and upon the completion of the canvass the governor shall forthwith issue a proclamation, giving the whole number of votes cast for and against each measure or proposed amendment, and declaring such measures or amendments as are approved by a majority of those voting thereon to be law.
(14) Reservation of legislative power. This section shall not be construed to deprive the legislature of the right to enact any measure. except that the legislature shall not have the power to adopt any measure that supersedes, in whole or in part, any initiative measure approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon or any referendum measure decided by a majority of the votes cast thereon unless the superseding measure furthers the purposes of the initiative or referendum measure and at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the legislature, by a roll call of ayes and nays, vote to supersede such initiative or referendum measure.
(15) Legislature's right to refer measure to the people. Nothing in this section shall be construed to deprive or limit the legislature of the right to order the submission to the people at the polls of any measure, item, section, or part of any measure.
(16) (15) Self-executing. This section of the constitution shall be, in all respects, self executing.[4]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Arizona Constitution
In Arizona, a constitutional amendment must be passed by a simple majority vote in each house of the state legislature during one legislative session.
The amendment was introduced on January 26, 2017, as House Concurrent Resolution 2002 (HCR 2002). The measure was approved by the House of Representatives, 35 to 25, on February 23, 2017.[5] The last day for Senate committees to address House bills was Friday, March 24, 2017.[6] The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear HCR 2002 before the deadline, but committee chairperson Sen. Judy Burges (R-22) pulled the bill from the committee's agenda.[7]
The 2017 legislative session ran from January 9, 2017, through May 10, 2017.
House vote
February 23, 2017[5]
| Arizona HCR 2002 House Vote | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Yes | 35 | 58.33% | ||
| No | 25 | 41.67% | ||
| Partisan breakdown of House votes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party Affiliation | Yes | No | Abstain | Total |
| Democrat | 0 | 25 | 0 | 25 |
| Republican | 35 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Total | 35 | 25 | 0 | 60 |
See also
Related measures
- Arizona Repeal Proposition 105 Requirements for Referendums Amendment (2018)
- Arizona Distribution Requirement for Initiatives and Referendums Amendment (2018)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Arizona Legislature, "House Concurrent Resolution 2002," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Arizona Secretary of State, "Proposition 105," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Leshy, J. D. (2011). "The Arizona State Constitution". New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (pages 121-22)
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Arizona Legislature, "Bill History for HCR2002," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Arizona Legislature, "2017 Session Timeline, accessed March 24, 2017
- ↑ The Arizona Republic, "Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signs bill banning pay-per-signature for initiative petitions," March 23, 2017
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