Initiative signatures out

A judge rules that thousands of voter signatures crucial to keeping the “Outlaw Dirty Money Act” initiative on the Nov. 6 Arizona ballot are invalid.

The blows keep coming for supporters of a citizens initiative that aims to eliminate “dirty money,” or anonymous political spending, in Arizona elections.

On Thursday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders ruled that thousands of voter signatures crucial to keeping the “Outlaw Dirty Money Act” on the Nov. 6 ballot are invalid.

State elections officials announced earlier this week that the act failed to qualify for the ballot because supporters didn’t submit enough valid signatures.

The double whammy leaves the Outlaw Dirty Money campaign with far fewer signatures than they need. Their proposal would amend the Arizona Constitution to make public the identity of major campaign contributors.

Thursday’s ruling was largely a victory for conservative groups that sued to disqualify thousands of signatures collected in support of the initiative.

One of those groups is the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a political organization, supported by billionaire Charles Koch, that spends heavily to influence elections without disclosing its donors.

Andrew Clark, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the case makes it clear “there simply isn’t widespread support among Arizonans to put a violation of the First Amendment on the ballot.”

The initiative’s opponents argue that private individuals shouldn’t be forced to disclose whom they support with their money.

But the effort’s supporters aren’t giving up the fight. They immediately filed an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court and continue to push to restore invalidated signatures.

Former Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat who’s the initiative’s main proponent, said opponents have relied on “hypertechnical” complaints to disqualify legitimate signatures.

He said the campaign will ask the Supreme Court to let voters decide the is-

sue in November, saying that’s the legal precedent when ballot eligibility is a close call.

“We just would like voters to have an opportunity to vote,” Goddard told The

Arizona Republic on Thursday. “That’s 100 years of legal precedent in Arizona. That’s the long tradition in this state, and I think it’s a good one. It’s a noble one.”

Many of the signatures disqualified in Thursday’s ruling were thrown out because they were collected by 15 paid gatherers who didn’t respond to subpoenas requiring them to appear in court Monday.

It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday how many additional signatures were invalidated as a result of Sanders’ ruling.

The initiative’s supporters submitted 285,768 signatures they filed petitions in July. State and county elections officials — who vet a 5 percent sample of the signatures — found an estimated 61,900 were invalid.

That left the Outlaw Dirty Money campaign with an estimated 2,071 fewer valid signatures than the 225,963 required for the act to appear on the ballot.

A final decision on the initiative’s fate is expected by Aug. 30, the state’s printing deadline for election-publicity pamphlets.