By Sean Holstege | The Arizona Republic
A yearlong, developer-backed effort by tribal landowners to move the controversial South Mountain Freeway onto the Gila River Reservation appears dead.
On July 3, the tribal government ruled that scores of signatures to put the question on a tribal ballot were invalid or gathered fraudulently. After dropping them from the count, too few remained to meet the tribe’s requirements to qualify the petition, tribal elections officials said.
For tribe members who wanted no freeway, it was a victory, but it may be short-lived.
