Manuel Galdamez, a member of Rural Arizonans for Accountability, walks through a neighborhood in northern Pima County to gather signatures for a petition to recall Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, on March 19./Arizona Capitol Times
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
A House panel approved legislation Wednesday that could give foes of voter-proposed initiatives a new legal tool to keep them from ever getting to the ballot.
Senate Bill 1094 would spell out that petition circulators have to read, out loud, the 300-word description that accompanies all initiatives.
Alternately, they could allow would-be signers the time to read it to themselves. But there is nothing in the proposal to say how long that should be.
Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, who crafted the measure, said it’s designed to ensure that people are informed about what they are being asked to sign.
“This is to make sure that what is communicated to the folks who are asking to sign petitions is accurate,” he told members of the Government and Elections Committee. And by “accurate,” Mesnard said that means the official, legally required summary “as opposed to whatever version the circulator can otherwise state to convince somebody, and then they’d be totally wrong or lying or distorting or whatever.”
What makes that important, he said, is that whatever is approved at the ballot cannot be altered by the legislature.
“Obviously, it is high stakes,” Mesnard said.
