Arizona political actors are trying every way they can to prevent voters from voting on the Make Elections Fair initiative. Why are they so afraid of giving every voter an equal voice?
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Republic of Arizona
The prospect of fair elections in Arizona appears to be causing the state’s political leaders to break out in a cold sweat.
Give the people of Arizona the opportunity to abolish partisan primaries and replace them with a single open primary in which every voter would have an equal vote and every candidate would have an equal chance?
This must not be allowed under any circumstances.
This marks the beginning of their four-pronged, bipartisan attack on the Make Elections Fair initiative.
Opponents do not really want to make elections fair
They have filed a lawsuit to remove the law from the November 5 ballot, arguing that it is unconstitutional. They have filed a lawsuit to remove the law from the November 5 ballot, arguing that not enough voters have signed petitions to pass it.
In case they fail to prevent the submission of votes, they have adopted a misleading description of the measure for the state’s official informational brochure, which is sent to every voter.
And if all else fails, they have put a competing proposal on the ballot in the hope that a small group of the state’s most partisan voters can continue to dictate our decisions in the general election.
Yes, someone is worried. Actually, quite a lot of people, on both political camps.
“The goal is to take money out of our pockets … and they’re succeeding,” Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican consultant and head of the Make Elections Fair campaign, told me. “These extreme party forces want to maintain a tight grip on the primaries, which only the most extreme candidates can win.”
The good news is that the opponents have so far won the three legal disputes 0-1.
1 legal challenge resolved, another one is coming soon
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club – a Republican dark money group that succeeded in packing the Arizona Corporation Commission with pro-utility regulators a decade ago – filed suit, claiming the proposal makes several unconstitutional changes to the state’s election law.
But on Friday, Judge Frank Moskowitz of Maricopa County Superior Court sent the Free Enterprisers home. He ruled that the Make Elections Fair Act does not violate the state constitution’s single subject rule, saying the changes are “sufficiently related to each other to be considered to have a single purpose.” There is the possibility of an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.
“Make Elections Fair” would abolish partisan primaries and replace them with a single open primary.
And yet the Legislative Council, a bipartisan body that must approve an impartial summary of the promotional brochure proposal, voted 14 to 0 to sweep under the rug the explanation of what the bill actually seeks to do.
Instead, her summary begins with a warning about what our politicians fear: ranked-choice voting.
However, Make Elections Fair does not mandate ranked-choice voting. It says the legislature and governor will determine how many candidates will run on the general election ballot, but if there are more than two candidates for an office, voters will rank their nominations in order of preference.
Make Elections Fair challenged the Leg Council’s summary, arguing that an impartial summary should begin with the requirements of the proposal – not the requirements it does not have.
A judge is expected to announce his decision any day now.
If courts fail, they will try to deceive us
Meanwhile, a judge will hold a hearing Monday afternoon on a lawsuit filed by three voters represented by two lawyers who work for the Arizona Democratic Party and Latino civil rights organizations. It’s not clear who is paying for this lawsuit, but the target is clear.
They hope to invalidate a large number of the nearly 600,000 signatures submitted to Make Elections Fair. They claim the petition is flawed in many ways that have nothing to do with the will of the voters, but solely with the will of the political parties to keep partisan primaries as they are.
“Make Elections Fair” needs 383,923 valid signatures to remain on the ballot.
If the courts do not deny voters the opportunity to decide on fair elections, there is still the opportunity to trick us and get us to reject this plan.
Don’t fall for pressure from both parties: To protect the power of the parties
The Republican-led House is so appalled at the prospect of a single open primary that it voted last year to put its own, competing constitutional amendment on the November 5 ballot – an amendment designed to protect the status quo by protecting partisan primaries.
Republican Rep. Austin Smith, who drafted the referendum and is one of the state’s most partisan politicians, believes the initiative is a “scam” hatched by “lobbyists and washed-up politicians.”
“They’re trying to change the primary system in Arizona because they don’t want conservatives in red counties to continue winning primaries,” Smith said last year before he was accused of forging signatures to put his own name on the 2024 ballot.
None of the parties wants fair elections
Or to put it another way: Because the taxpayer-funded primaries should be about more than just meeting the wishes of a small minority in a state where a third of the voters have left the two major parties and become independent.
Finally, open primaries would favor candidates who appeal to a broader range of voters.
That would mean that people like Senator Wendy Rogers, a far-right congresswoman who just defeated her more moderate Republican opponent in July, could well run against traditional Republicans in November rather than Democrats who have no chance in their heavily Republican districts.
Neither party wants a fair election in this state. They like the fact that their respective grassroots political parties are dictating the election to us in November.
They have no interest in giving the fastest-growing segment of the electorate – independents – more say in how our state is run.
“Make Elections Fair will allow every registered voter to participate in every election, including primaries,” Don Budinger, chairman of the Rodel Foundation and a member of the Make Elections Fair board, told me earlier this summer. “All votes will have equal value, public financing of partisan elections will end, and campaigns will reward candidates with the best policy ideas supported by the majority of our citizens, not just a determined minority.”
Therefore, all stops must be pulled out to bring down the “Make Elections Fair” initiative before it reaches the voters.
The sweat emanating from our most partisan political leaders? It’s not the heat.
Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz and in threads under @LaurieRobertsaz.
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