By Mary Jo Pitzl | The Republic
When Gov. Doug Ducey last week signed a bill that will make citizen initiatives more difficult, opponents said they weren’t done fighting.
Neither, apparently, are those who want to tighten rules for placing initiatives on the ballot.
A new bill on a fast track for passage in the Arizona Legislature would require elections officials to toss out signatures if they don’t strictly comply with legal standards.
For example, a voter’s signature could be disregarded if the signer includes a middle name but the voter-registration rolls do not show that name. If a voter leaves off his or her street designation — such as dropping “road” or “avenue” from their address — it could be tossed. If a petition sheet didn’t meet certain standards for size, a judge could throw out all the signatures on that sheet.
