By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Daily Sun
Republican senators voted Wednesday to impose new requirements on initiative circulators in a way one Democrat said is designed to make it easier for special interests to quash future ballot measures.
Existing laws require certain people who circulate petitions to register with the Secretary of State. That includes anyone who is not an Arizona resident and all paid circulators, regardless of where they are from.
SB 1451 would mandate that these people provide a telephone number and email address. It also says that when petitions are filed with the Secretary of State they must be grouped by circulator.
But the real key is that failure to do any of this means that any petitions collected by a circulator are not counted, regardless of whether the signatures are valid or not. Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, said that amounts to “disenfranchisement.”
