Citizen’s Initiatives
In Arizona, voters have the power to create public policy through direct democracy. Think of it like running for office, but instead of a candidate, you’re campaigning for a new law or constitutional amendment. Getting a citizen’s initiative on the ballot can be arduous and cost prohibitive, but as a vector for change, it’s unparalleled. The gulf between public sentiment and legislative action on any given issue can be significant, and citizen’s initiatives give voters the chance to advance policy ideas that would otherwise be complete political nonstarters.
On This PageHow Citizen’s Initiatives Work
Most Arizona residents have probably been asked to sign enough petitions that we’ve started to tune out the question, “are you registered to vote in Arizona?” from anyone holding a clipboard, but it’s a remarkable fact of our state constitution that by gathering enough signatures to put our ideas on the ballot (and then by winning enough votes) we can create new laws and even new constitutional amendments outside of the standard legislative process.
After filing the appropriate paperwork to begin your campaign, your sole task is to circulate enough petitions so that by the time the deadline to submit them rolls around, you’ll have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. For the next election, the deadline will be July 3, 2024. In each cycle, the signature threshold is set at 15% of “qualified electors” for a constitutional amendment, which works out to 383,923 signatures, or 10% to update state statute, which works out to 255,949 signatures. The key here, and the reason petitioners remind you to stay inside the lines, is that many of the signatures you collect will be invalid, so you’ll want to submit your petitions at a very comfortable margin above the threshold.
Up to this point, we’re still only looking at the math, but once your initiative finds any success, that success will be met with aggressive legal challenges. You’ll need to defend the validity of your signatures, the conduct of your petitioners, and even the content and constitutionality of your initiative, all at great financial cost. Most campaigns require millions of dollars to pass through this gauntlet, and even then there's no guarantee of success on Election Day. If your measure is voted down, you’re back to square one.
2022 Ballot Measures
In the 2022 midterms, Arizona voters were presented with 10 statewide ballot measures. Only two were the result of citizen’s initiatives, while the rest were referred to the ballot by the legislature. Despite the clear obstacles and challenges inherent to running a successful citizen’s initiative campaign, three of the ballot measures referred by the legislature included some kind of new restriction on the process of direct democracy.
2022 Legislative Referrals to Limit Citizen’s Initiatives
Prop 128 – Failed
- Sample Ballot · Full Measure ·
A constitutional amendment that originated in the legislature as SCR 1034, this proposition would have given the legislature more power to disregard or contradict citizen’s initiatives. Currently, the legislature is only allowed to pass legislation that would supersede a citizen’s initiative if they can demonstrate that it furthers the purpose of the original measure, and even then, only by a three-quarters majority vote in each chamber. By adding the short qualifier, “unless the measure is found to contain illegal or unconstitutional language by the Arizona supreme court or United States supreme court,” Prop 128 would have allowed the legislature to pass – by a simple majority vote – legislation that directly contradicts any part of a citizen’s initiative if even just one portion of the initiative is found to be unconstitutional.
Prop 129 – Passed
- Sample Ballot · Full Measure ·
A constitutional amendment that originated in the legislature as HCR 2001, this proposition establishes a “single subject rule” for citizen’s initiatives. Under this rule, citizen’s initiatives must choose a title to perfectly encapsulate their policy goals, and while this may theoretically simplify the decision for a voter, it could also make it less likely for citizen’s initiatives to end up on the ballot in the first place. By narrowing the potential scope for any initiative, Arizona citizens will almost certainly need to run far more initiatives to achieve the same goals, dramatically multiplying the number of signatures to gather and the already monumental costs associated with that process.
Prop 132 – Passed
- Sample Ballot · Full Measure ·
A constitutional amendment that originated in the legislature as HCR 2015, this proposition moves the goalposts for citizen’s initiatives to pass if the initiative introduces a tax, from a simple majority vote to a 60% threshold. This mirrors a similar restriction in the legislature, where tax cuts can be passed with only a simple majority, but a supermajority vote is required to pass any new taxes. Because many initiatives need to establish a revenue source to implement their policies, this poses a major obstacle for direct democracy.
Citizen’s Initiatives on the Ballot in 2022
Prop 209 – Passed
- Sample Ballot · Full Measure ·
A citizen’s initiative titled the Predatory Debt Collection Protection act, Prop 209 will “reduce maximum interest rates on medical debt from 10% to 3% annually” and “increase the amount of certain assets exempt from debt collection.”
Prop 211 – Passed
- Sample Ballot · Full Measure ·
Prop 211, or The Voters’ Right to Know Act, is a citizen’s initiative that will bring voters increased transparency into political spending. While political candidates are already required to disclose the source of donations to their campaigns, independent expenditures run by corporations or nonprofits (like Equality Arizona, and all across the political spectrum) are not. This measure introduces new disclosure requirements for independent expenditures to level the playing field.