Arizona Voting and Campaign Finance Policies Initiative (2020)

Arizona Voting and Campaign Finance Policies Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Voting policy measures
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Arizona ballot measuresArizona Proposition 207Arizona Proposition 208Submit

The Arizona Voting and Campaign Finance Policies Initiative was not on the ballot in Arizona as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.

The ballot measure would have made several changes to the state's voting and campaign finance policies, including:

• stating that registered voters have the right to vote a secret ballot in all elections;
• enacting a system of automatic voter registration that would register eligible people who present proof of citizenship when applying for or renewing a driver's license;
• allowing voters to register at the polls on Election Day;
• requiring counties to place at least one precinct and one polling place on Indian reservations and allowing tribes to select the locations of polling places;
• allowing counties to extend in-person early voting to the day before the election;
• allowing mail-in ballots that were postmarked on Election Day but before the close of polls to be counted, instead of requiring ballots to arrive at county election offices on Election Day;
• requiring election officials to evaluate the use of a risk-limiting audit system beginning in 2024;
• decreasing individual and parternship contribution limits to candidate committees for local offices ($6,250 to $1,000), state legislative offices ($6,250 to $1,000), and statewide offices ($6,250 to $2,500);
• decreasing PAC contribution limits to candidate committees for local offices ($6,250 to $1,000), state legislative offices ($6,250 to $1,000), and statewide offices ($6,250 to $1,000);
• enacting a system to issue vouchers worth between $10 and $50 to each registered voter, who can use the vouchers to make contributions to candidates; and
• banning public officers and senior employees from lobbying for two years after leaving office, instead of one year.

The ballot measure would have also provided funding for the vouchers program by creating a corporate minimum tax of $150 or $50 when a corporation has 50 or fewer employees. The ballot measure would have provided people who contribute $5 to the Clean Elections Fund with a $5 state income tax reduction.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Arizona

Process in Arizona

In Arizona, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast for the office of governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. Petitions can be circulated for up to 24 months. Signature petitions must be submitted four months prior to the election at which the measure is to appear.

The requirements to get initiated state statutes certified for the 2020 ballot:

• Signatures: 237,645 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was July 2, 2020.

If the secretary of state certifies that enough valid signatures were submitted, the initiative is put on the next general election ballot. The secretary of state verifies the signatures through a random sampling of 5 percent of submitted signatures working in collaboration with county recorders. If the random sampling indicates that valid signatures equal to between 95 percent and 105 percent of the required number were submitted, a full check of all signatures is required. If the random sampling shows fewer signatures, the petition fails. If the random sampling shows more, the initiative is certified for the ballot.

Stages of this initiative

The committee Arizonans for Fair Elections filed the ballot initiative on January 29, 2020.

Anabel Maldonado, campaign manager of Arizonans for Fair Elections, said the campaign was suspending signature gathering. Maldonado said, "In order to keep from risking the health of our circulators and Arizona residents, we suspended both paid and volunteer signature collection late last Tuesday [March 17]. ... Our teams are on standby, just in case. Additionally, we are working with our partners to figure out what is the safest way we can organize digitally to help identify our supporters."

Petitioning of U.S. District Court

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On April 2, 2020, two ballot initiative campaigns filed a legal complaint asking the U.S. District Court for Arizona to allow the campaigns to gather signatures through E-Qual, which is the state's online signature collection platform, or a similar system during the coronavirus pandemic. E-Qual is available for federal, statewide, and legislative candidates but not ballot initiatives.

The legal complaint stated, "None of the emergency orders issued by the Governor or any other state official provide relief for obstacles to ballot access faced by initiative proponents, signature gatherers, or those who wish to support initiatives in light of COVID-19. ... Failure to obtain the required number of signatures under the Secretary’s strict enforcement during the quarantine and social-distancing period, and thereby fail to qualify for the November 3, 2020 General Election ballot, in effect restrains the Plaintiffs’ freedom of speech and association."

The two ballot initiative campaigns that filed the petition were:

• Arizonans for Fair Elections, which was behind the Voting and Campaign Finance Policies Initiative, and

• Arizonans Fed Up with Failing Healthcare (Healthcare Rising AZ), which was behind the Hospital Worker Minimum Wage and Insurance Regulations Initiative.

On April 17, 2020, Judge Dominic Lanza rejected the legal complaint. He said, "Although the public has a strong interest in enacting laws through the initiative process, and although the court is loathe to take any action (or inaction) that would expose Arizonans to an increased risk of harm during these challenging times, the signature requirements (the lawsuit) seeks to displace have been a part of Arizona's constitutional and electoral landscape for over a century."

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Voting policy measures on the ballot
• Campaign finance on the ballot

Arizona

• Arizona ballot measures
• Arizona ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Initiative 29 (2020)