Arizona senate to vote on changing initiative petition deadline
The Arizona Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to give voters a chance to re-think a decision they made less than three years ago. From Phoenix, KJZZ’s Mark Brodie reports.
MARK BRODIE: The proposal would ask voters to move the deadline for filing initiative petition signatures from four months before an election, to six months prior. During a hearing earlier this month, the measure’s sponsor, Senator Michele Reagan, a Scottsdale Republican, said more time between when petitions have to be turned in, and when ballots go to the printer shouldn’t make it more difficult to get measures on the ballot.
MICHELE REAGAN: Everything gets crunched at the end, and everyone ends up in court, and you end up with ballot decisions being made with two hours to go, and a judge says, ‘The ballot’s being printed in two hours and I have to make this decision.’ That’s not, I don’t think, what the people want, is their elections decisions being put in the hands of some attorneys and a judge in a quick decision.
BRODIE: Arizona voters defeated a similar proposal in 2010, by less than 200 votes. If the senate approves this year’s version, it’ll move on for consideration in the house.
