Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It's looking like the Maxwell Smart behind the Open Elections/Open Government Act initiative "missed it by that much." Like the Checks and Balances in Government initiative, the measure is coming up short of enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Arizona Top 2 primary initiative plagued by bad signatures; supporters promise lawsuit:
[T]the citizens’ initiative that seeks to put in a “top-two” primary election system in Arizona appears to lack the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.
Even before the statewide signature verification has been fully completed, the Open Elections/Open Government ballot initiative already has too many invalid signatures, according to an Arizona Capitol Times’ analysis of figures released by the Maricopa County and Pima County recorders’ offices, as well as the Arizona Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State determined that 17,932 signatures – or 5 percent of the 358,629 signatures that were eligible for verification – needed to be checked by county elections officials.
In order to qualify for the ballot, no more than 4,970 of those signatures could be deemed invalid. But the total number of invalid signatures for only Maricopa, Pima, Graham and Apache counties has already reached 4,975.
The remaining 11 counties are still validating signatures and have until Aug. 27 to submit their findings to the Secretary of State. Their findings can only add to the number of signatures already deemed invalid.
Joe Yuhas, a political consultant working on behalf of the initiative, said he and the initiative’s supporters will begin working on legal action to challenge what is expected to be a rejection from the November ballot.
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After each county has reported to the Secretary of State, a challenge to the sample validation is required within five days.
A spokesman for the Secretary of State said the office will not make any official decision or announcement about the number of valid or invalid signatures until all 15 counties have reported their findings.
With all the money this group has wasted on this initiative, they could have just sent me a check.
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