Judge rejects block for Arizona’s open primary initiative, but legal fight continues
Maricopa Co. judge finds several reasons to dismiss case; opponents are taking it to Arizona Supreme Court
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that votes can be counted for Proposition 140, the ballot measure asking voters whether Arizona should move to an open primary system.
The “Make Elections Fair Arizona Act” has faced legal challenges in recent weeks even as ballots have already been printed.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Frank Moskowitz ruled that ballots can be counted even as opponents say they’ll take the fight to the Arizona Supreme Court. But the judge himself acknowledged that there is evidence to suggest the 37,657 signatures disputed are duplicates.
While he says there’s no authority that challenges must end before ballot printing begins, there is precedent, based on case law, that opponents have run out the clock. As such, Moskowitz is dismissing the case.
But that’s not all. Moskowitz also found that other judges, using the state’s counting method, are “double-counting” invalid signatures to bring the number below the required threshold for ballot measures.
“The Court also finds that ‘double counting’ invalid signatures in this case raises the Constitutional minimum threshold of valid signatures from ‘equal to 15%’ to 15.2%. This is another reason why the statutorily mandated ‘double counting’ of invalid signatures as applied to this case is unconstitutional,” Moskowitz wrote in the ruling.
Moskowitz also says that challengers don’t have legal grounds to ask election officials not to count votes if the Arizona Supreme Court rules in their favor.
Opponents of Prop 140 weren’t happy.
“Today he issued a ruling manufacturing that outcome, deciding that the statutory method for determining the number of valid signatures for ballot initiatives is now unconstitutional,” said Scot Mussi, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “We are confident that after a careful review of the facts, ruling, and trial court record, the AZ Supreme Court will again overturn this outrageous ruling by Judge Moskowitz and enjoin Prop 140 from being tabulated.”
Moskowitz ruled in mid-August that the ballot measure had gathered enough signatures to move forward but invalidated several thousand signatures deemed duplicates.
After an appeal, the state supreme court allowed the challenge to move forward despite it being past the ballot-printing deadline.
At least 383,923 valid signatures were required for the measure to appear on this year’s ballot. The total number of valid signatures stands at 409,474, a decrease of about 30% from the nearly 584,124 signatures initially submitted.
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