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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
REVISED
local ballot measures; supplemental filing
Purpose
Allows a single supplemental filing of additional signatures to be filed after an initiative petition for a city, town or county matter is filed within the specified time frame.
Background
The Arizona Constitution grants the people the power to: 1) propose laws and amendments to the Constitution; 2) enact or reject laws and amendments at the polls, independent of the Legislature; and 3) approve or reject any item, section or part of any act of the Legislature at the polls. For local, city, town or county matters the initiative power requires 15 percent of the qualified electors within the city, town or county to propose an initiative measure. When an initiative petition is filed with the Secretary of State (SOS), the SOS must verify the petition within 20 business days and must randomly select five percent of the total eligible signatures to be verified by the county recorders of the counties in which the persons signing the petition state they are qualified electors. The duties performed by the SOS for statewide initiatives are assumed by the city or town clerk, or the officer in charge of elections for local initiative measures (Ariz. Const. art. 4, pt. 1, § 1; A.R.S. § 19-121.01; and 19-141).
A petition is filed once it is given to the SOS. Once the petition is filed, the SOS must issue a receipt based on an estimate made to the SOS of the purported number of sheets and signatures filed. After the receipt is issued, no additional petition sheets may be accepted for filing. The SOS may prescribe the method of filing and no more than 15 signatures on one sheet may be counted. For petitions filed regarding city, town or county matters, the committee that is the proponent and that files the petition must organize the signature sheets and group them by circulator. The local filing officer may return, as unfiled, any signature sheets that are not organized and grouped accordingly (A.R.S. § 19-121).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Allows the proponents of a petition for a city, town or county matter that files the petition within 30 days of the filing deadline, to file additional petition signatures in a single supplemental filing by the filing deadline.
2. Makes technical and conforming changes.
3. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Revisions
· Updates the background to include local initiative petition requirements.
Senate Action
ELEC 2/15/2024 DP 7-0-1
Prepared by Senate Research
March 8, 2024
AN/KS/cs