 |
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
new party recognition; signatures; circulators
Purpose
An emergency measure that voids a new party petition that contains any signature collected over 24 months before the primary election at which the party seeks recognition. Requires new party petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State (SOS) and the SOS to establish procedures regarding new party petition circulators.
Background
A new political party seeking recognition in Arizona at the next regular primary election and ensuing general election must file a petition with the SOS at least 250 days before the primary election at which the party seeks recognition. The petition must be signed by a number of qualified electors equal to at least one and one-third percent of the total votes cast for governor at the last preceding general election at which a governor was elected. The petition must be verified by the affidavit of 10 qualified electors asking that the signers be recognized as a new political party and on a form that allows qualified electors to: 1) sign and print their name; 2) state their address; and 3) mark the date signed. Within seven days of receiving the petition, the SOS must remove signatures that are not eligible for verification due to missing information and randomly select 20 percent of the signatures eligible for verification by each applicable county recorder for the county in which the qualified elector of a signature claims to live. Within 10 business days of receiving the signatures from the SOS, the county recorder must determine which signatures received from the SOS must be disqualified for reasons including, but not limited to: 1) an illegible or nonexistent provided address; 2) the individual was not a qualified elector on the date of signing the petition; 3) the signature is illegible and the signer is otherwise unidentifiable; and 4) the signature is disqualified after comparison with the signature on the affidavit of registration. The county recorder must then certify to the SOS any signatures that are disqualified for the SOS to determine the total number of valid petition signatures. If the number of valid signatures as projected from the random sample is at least 100 percent of the minimum number required, the party must be recognized (A.R.S. §§ 16-801 and 16-803).
Statute prescribes requirements for statewide initiative and referendum circulators including that all initiative and referendum circulators who are not residents of Arizona, or who are paid circulators, must register with the SOS before circulating initiative petitions. The SOS must establish a procedure for registering initiative petition circulators in the instructions and procedures manual (EPM) and publish all required information for an initiative petition circulator to effectively register on the SOS's website (A.R.S. § 19-118).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Voids a new party petition that contains one or more signatures that are collected more than 24 months before the primary election at which the party seeks recognition.
2. Prohibits a filing officer from accepting a voided new party petition.
3. Requires persons who circulate new party recognition petitions to register as circulators with the SOS before circulating petitions.
4. Requires the SOS to:
a) provide for a method of receiving service of process for registered new party petition circulators; and
b) establish a procedure for registering circulators and receiving service of process within the EPM.
5. Requires new political party petition requirements to be strictly construed and petitioners for a new political party to strictly comply with statutory requirements.
6. Makes technical changes.
7. Becomes effective on signature of the Governor, if the emergency clause is enacted.
House Action
MOE 1/31/24 DPA 8-0-0-1
3rd Read 2/9/24 57-2-0-0-1
Prepared by Senate Research
March 7, 2024
AN/HS/cs