By Jeremy Duda | Arizona Mirror
Voters next year may get a chance to bar lawmakers from voting on legislation that benefits them financially, roll back restrictions on citizen initiatives and repeal a ban on door-to-door ballot collections through a wide-raging ballot measure crafted by a group of Democratic operatives.
The Democracy and Accountability Act would strengthen conflict-of-interest laws at the legislature, which critics have long decried as toothless and inadequate. It would also scrap a ban on door-to-door ballot collections, a practice that used to be a common tactic in Democratic campaigns and which Republicans refer to as “ballot harvesting.”
In addition, it would repeal a law allowing opponents of proposed ballot measures to subpoena petition-gatherers for any reason, which has already proven to be an effective tool for kicking initiatives off the ballot. And it seeks to loosen the increasingly restrictive registration requirements for petition gatherers.
