P.L.A.N. Update - Ready to Vote?‏

Voter Registration Deadline

To be eligible to vote in the August 24 Primary Election, voters must register by July 26. Early voting begins July 29.

Direct Democracy 101

This November, Arizona voters will have the opportunity to decide up to ten ballot questions. Our state Constitution provides two different paths for an issue to get on the ballot: the first, a referendum, is an issue passed by the Legislature as a concurrent resolution and submitted to the Secretary of State; the other, an initiative, is an issue proposed by citizens who gather signatures on petitions that are submitted to the Secretary of State. When our constitution was drafted, the citizen initiative and referendum process was an important element that is not included in most other state constitutions. You can find all the guidelines for the initiative and referendum process in the Arizona Legislative Manual.

All changes to the State Constitution must be approved by a vote of the people, but not every ballot measure is a constitutional amendment. One of the key differences between our Constitution and our statutes is that the Legislature can change a statute on its own, except that since passage of the Voter Protection Act in 1998, the Legislature cannot change a voter-approved statute unless the change "furthers the purpose" of the original ballot item and the change is approved by three-fourths votes in both the state Senate and House.

This year the Legislature referred nine items to the ballot. Petitions supporting a single additional ballot initiative, Prop. 203, were filed with the Secretary of State. Secretary Ken Bennett's Office is now busily evaluating petition signatures, a time-consuming process that we expect to wrap up during the first week in August.

What You'll See This Fall

The ballot is typically arranged so that proposed constitutional amendments are numbered consecutively beginning with the number 100; proposed initiative measures amending state statutes are numbered consecutively beginning with the number 200; measures amending state statutes referred by the Legislature are numbered consecutively beginning with the number 300; and county and local issues are numbered consecutively beginning with the number 400. The numbering is based on the order in which the referendum or initiative petitions were filed with the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State Web site displays the Ballot Measure List.

At this time, no constitutional amendment initiatives were brought forward by petitions and seven constitutional amendments were referred by the Legislature (One of those measures, Prop. 108 - Right to Vote Secret Ballot, was determined this week to violate the "single subject" rule of the Arizona constitution and therefore it will NOT appear on the ballot this fall):

- Health Care Services (Prop. 106)
- Preferential Treatment or Discrimination Prohibition (Prop. 107)
- Hunting and Fishing (Prop. 109)
- State Trust Lands (Prop. 110)
- Lieutenant Governor (Prop. 111)
- Initiative Petitions (Prop. 112)

There is one proposed initiative measure amending state statutes: Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (Prop. 203);

and two measures changing state statutes referred by the Legislature: The Land Conservation Fund (Prop. 301) and Early Childhood Development and Health Programs (Prop. 302)

We'll all see and hear more about these measures in the weeks to come!

Source: P.L.A.N.