Foes vow to fight new ballot hurdles

Libertarian Barry Hess said he's determined to run for governor next year, even though he'll face a 4,380 percent increase in the number of signatures he'll need to qualify for the ballot.

For Democrats, it's a 9.8 percent increase. Meanwhile, any Republican seeking the seat will have a 5.8 percent decrease in the signature requirement.

The shifting numbers are due to a late addition to a wide-ranging election bill that Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law last week. The measure was favored by Republicans, who flexed some local and national muscle to revive House Bill 2305 in the waning hours of the recently completed legislative session.

The law raises the bar to qualify for the ballot so high that minor-party candidates, such as Greens and Libertarians, say it would be nearly impossible for them to compete in statewide, congressional and legislative races. The law also raises the requirement for Democrats seeking to run statewide, be it for governor or U.S. senator.

In legislative and congressional contests, the effect on Democrats and Republicans varies with the voter registration in a given district. In some cases, they will need to collect fewer voter signatures; in others, more.

That provision, on top of other parts of HB 2305, has energized critics who say they are working on plans to stop the law from taking effect Sept. 13.

Warren Severin, chairman of the Arizona Libertarian Party, predicts a referendum to put the matter before the voters in 2014.

"There will be legal action," said Severin, adding that opponents are meeting Tuesday to discuss strategy.

D.J. Quinlan, executive director of the state Democratic Party, says the bill smacks of voter suppression with its tighter limits on the citizen-initiative process, ballot collection and the early-voting list.

"All options are on the table," he said.

The new law ties the signature requirement to the total number of voters registered in a given district, as opposed to the the current system, which is linked to the number of registered voters of a given party. Parties with smaller numbers have had a smaller base from which to calculate the signature requirement; the new law widens that base by linking it to all registered voters, not just those of a given party.

Representatives of the Green and Libertarian parties said they find that particularly offensive in the case of primaries, in which parties nominate their own candidates. In some cases, they will have to get the signatures of independents, Democrats or Republicans to qualify for their own party primaries.

Angel Torres, chairman of the Arizona Green Party, said the law effectively shuts his party out of primary contests because of the higher signature count. He predicted the Greens will opt to run as write-in candidates.

Critics of the law said it's a valentine for Republican candidates, who often view third-party candidates, particularly Libertarians, as spoilers in their races. The bill would cement the two major parties' hold on Arizona elections, said Hess, communications chairman for the state Libertarian Party.

Republicans who pushed the measure say it's a matter of fairness: All candidates for a given race should meet the same signature threshold.

The bill failed on a Senate vote but was revived when Sens. Steve Pierce and Rich Crandall reversed their stances and voted in favor of it.

Pierce, R-Prescott, said he got a call from Daniel Scarpinato, spokesman for the Republican National Congressional Committee. Pierce said Scarpinato was not calling in his official capacity, although his concern was how the signature requirement would affect campaigns.

Scarpinato was the spokesman for Republican Jonathan Paton's congressional campaign last year. Paton lost to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick in a close race for Congressional District 1 that also included Libertarian Kim Allen, who received 6percent of the vote. If Allen were not on the ballot, Paton's camp believes, Paton would have won.

To underscore the political ramifications of HB 2305 and its effect on minor-party candidates, Pierce said an angry state Rep. Adam Kwasman, R-Oro Valley, confronted him after the bill failed. Kwasman said he needed it to pass because he plans to run in CD1 next year, Pierce said.

Kwasman did not return a call seeking comment.

Pierce said he switched his vote after calling two people, whom he did not identify, asking to be released from his promise to vote against the bill.

Scarpinato did not return a call for comment. Crandall, R-Mesa, also did not reply to several requests for him to comment on his changed vote.

Copyright 2013 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Easier Access to Ballot Is Pushed by Democrats

In the last few weeks, potential voters in California have been able to register online for the first time, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that will allow residents to register and vote on Election Day. Connecticut passed similar legislation this year, and voting rights advocacy groups hope as many as five states might join them next year.

Democratic lawmakers here described the legislation as a potential counterweight to Republican-backed laws in other parts of the country requiring photo identification to vote and making it more difficult to register.

“It’s extremely important that as some states in the nation are moving to suppress voter turnout, California is moving forward to expand voter participation,” said Mike Feuer, a Democratic state assemblyman who sponsored the Election Day registration law. “I hope California is the catalyst for other states to encourage civic engagement and participation.”

The changes in California are hardly revolutionary. Election Day registration, which is already in effect in eight states, began in the early 1970s in states like Maine and Wisconsin. Online registration has now expanded to more than a dozen states since it was first established, in Arizona in 2002.

But conservative efforts to require people to show photo ID, a step they say is necessary to prevent voter fraud, seem to have galvanized some Democrats to try to expand ballot access — long an item on the party’s agenda, but one that had not been a top priority in recent years in many states.

In May, Connecticut became the first state in five years to approve Election Day registration. When he signed the bill into law, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement, “Despite the pervasive climate across the U.S. to restrict voting rights, Connecticut has moved in the opposite direction.”

Demos, a nonprofit organization that has worked to expand ballot access since the contested 2000 presidential election, has identified five additional states — Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and West Virginia — where they hope to pass Election Day registration laws next year.

In each of those states, Democrats control the governorship and at least one chamber of the legislature.

Voter registration laws were not always so infused with partisan politics.

In the 1990s, Republican strongholds like Idaho and Wyoming instituted Election Day registration. The National Conference of State Legislatures says that while little evidence of in-person voter fraud has been found, voter turnout in states with Election Day registration has been at least 10 percent higher than in states without it.

“Historically, this kind of work has been supported by Republican and Democratic states,” said Steven Carbó, state advocacy director for Demos. “There is no objective reason why we can’t be back at that point.”

Online registration has retained some measure of bipartisan support. The South Carolina Legislature unanimously approved it this year (although, in California, the vote broke along strict party lines).

But Election Day registration has become the exclusive province of Democrats. Since 1996, only four states have approved Election Day registration, and in each case it was a Democratic governor who signed the bill into law. Republican lawmakers in Maine and Montana have tried unsuccessfully to repeal their longstanding Election Day registration laws.

Mr. Feuer’s bill passed through the State Assembly with no Republican support.

“I think this really leaves the California voting system wide open to fraud,” said Connie Conway, the Republican leader in the State Assembly.

Mr. Feuer argued that both the online and Election Day registration laws included strong safeguards against voter fraud. Online registration will be an option only for residents who already have a California ID, and the Election Day registration law enhances penalties for fraud, and allows those who register that day to cast only provisional ballots.

Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of “The Voting Wars,” said that neither side’s ostensible rationale for pushing changes to voting laws should be taken entirely at face value.

Republicans, he said, have advocated for ID requirements in part to restrict the number of voters from the other party, since many population groups whose members tend to lack photo IDs also tend to vote Democratic. Democrats, meanwhile, have opposed all efforts to purge noncitizens from the voter rolls, which he called “a relatively small problem, but a real problem, and one that in the off-season needs to be corrected.”

“On both sides there is the official story, and then the realpolitik,” Mr. Hasen said.

That is the one thing that just about everyone agrees on. “Has it gotten more politicized?” Ms. Conway said. “Oh yeah.”

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Mitchell put back on fall ballot

Darin Mitchell will be a candidate for the Legislature after a whirlwind tour through the courts.

The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated the candidate Tuesday, minutes before elections officials started printing ballots for the Nov.6 election.

Mitchell's attorney Tim LaSota, said the candidate was pleased with the result and repeated Mitchell's assertion that he lives in the far-flung district.

Mitchell's residency was at the heart of a legal challenge launched 10 days ago when Rep. Russ Jones, who lost to Mitchell in last month's primary election, argued Mitchell should be tossed from the ballot because he lives outside Legislative District 13.

LaSota said he expected the legal fight to continue, "(b)ut we certainly like the position we're in because we're on the ballot."

Jones, R-Yuma, said he's "not giving up" on his effort to remove Mitchell from the ballot.

The legal quest is not about retaining the seat for himself, Jones said, adding that he thinks keeping the seat is a lost cause.

Jones said he is for pushing for integrity in Arizona elections.

On Monday, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge determined Mitchell lived outside Legislative District 13, which runs west from Litchfield Park to the California line and picks up parts of Yuma north of Interstate 8.

Mitchell gave elections officials different addresses on different documents, leading to a two-day vetting of his living arrangements, from where he slept to where he bathed.

Although he spent time with his fiancee at her Avondale home, which is in a heavily Democratic district, Mitchell testified that he lived in Litchfield Park in a nearly-vacant home that was being remodeled.

Monday's ruling knocked him off the ballot, prompting an emergency request to the state Court of Appeals to block the move.

The court agreed on the technical issue that Mitchell was not granted enough notice of the original suit.

Late Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied Jones' request to reverse the Appeals Court, guaranteeing Mitchell will appear on the ballot.

Jones said he does not believe he can run as a write-in candidate in the Nov. 6 election, but he will keep up his fight because Mitchell was reinstated on a technicality. The lower-court finding that Mitchell did not live in the district stands.

"It is an absolute abomination that we could go forward with this person," Jones said.

Mitchell and his running mate, Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, are the only candidates on the ballot, which virtually guarantees their election to the two House seats.

The Democratic Party does not have plans to run anyone as a write-in candidate, spokesman Frank Camacho said.

Meanwhile, Democrats used the hot-button residency issue to take aim at the sole candidate for the Senate seat in LD 13.

Camacho said Democrats believe Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, is renting a condominium in the district but still living in his longtime home in neighboring District 4, which is friendlier to Democrats.

They produced photos that show the senator's car parked at the house he owns in District 4 and said his landlord has failed to file a renter affidavit required by Yuma County regulations.

Shooter said he has "reams of documents" to prove he lives in the condo.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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How Did Ohio, Mississippi Ballot Initiatives Fare in 2011 Election? (ContributorNetwork)

The election that took place on Nov. 8, 2011 featured a number of statewide initiatives that have national import. Two of the results would seem to favor Democrats while two other results favored Republicans.

What the meaning these initiatives have for the 2012 election, if any, will be the subject of considerable debate for the next few weeks. Both sides of the political aisle find reason for comfort and for concern.

Ohio Issue 2: Collective Bargaining Rights for Public Sector Unions

Ohio voters rejected the Issue 2 ballot initiative, a result that had the effect of repealing a law passed in the Ohio legislature that restricted the rights of public sector employees to collectively bargain. Labor unions poured in tens of millions of dollars and many thousands of man hours to defeat the initiative. They succeeded by about a two to one margin. Conservatives warn, however, that this means that either taxes will have to be raised or services cut and employees laid off.

Ohio Issue 3: The Individual Insurance Mandate Under Obamacare

Proving that health care reform, also known as Obamacare, remains universally unpopular, voters in Ohio voted to pass Issue 3, which would exempt Ohioans from having to comply with the individual insurance mandate. Unfortunately if Obamacare remains law and if the Supreme Court upholds the individual mandate, the results of the measure are largely moot. It would, however, prevent Ohio from enacting its own version of Romneycare, passed in Massachusetts, which also has an individual mandate.

Mississippi Initiative 26: The Personhood Amendment

This ballot initiative would have defined a human being a legal person from the moment of conception, effectively outlawing all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest. This initiative proved to be too much, even for conservative, Bible belt Mississippi. The fear of unintended consequences, including the possibility that a woman suffering a miscarriage might be charged with involuntary manslaughter, influenced Mississippi voters to turn down the amendment.

Mississippi Initiative 31: Eminent Domain Reform

Even since the Supreme Court's Kelo decision, which permitted state and local governments to seize private property and to give that property to another private entity under eminent domain, states and localities have been scrambling to pass laws to tighten restrictions on eminent domain. Mississippi is the latest state to do so, passing a ballot initiative that largely prohibits state and local governments from taking private property and giving it to another private entity, even if it can claim that a public purpose, usually higher tax revenues, is being facilitated. It is another victory for property rights.

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Gallup: Congressional Dems beat GOP on generic 2012 ballot (Daily Caller)

In a new Gallup poll released Friday, a majority of registered voters say they would vote for a Democrat over a Republican if the 2012 congressional elections were held today.

The poll found 51 percent of voters leaning towards voting for a Democrat in next fall’s congressional election, with 44 percent saying they would vote Republican. Six percent were undecided, or would vote for a third party.

The Hill reports that although both major political parties were hurt by the debt ceiling debate, which ultimately resulted in a decision by Standard and Poor’s to downgrade the United States’ credit rating, the poll suggests Republicans will suffer more in the eyes of voters.

Incumbent members of Congress are also in trouble. Only 24 percent of voters say their representatives deserve to be reelected, a Gallup poll released earlier in the week found. That’s the lowest number Gallup has ever recorded for this question.

Congressional approval ratings are also at an all-time low. A New York Times/CBS News poll released last week found 82 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. Only 14 percent said Congress was doing a good job.

The Gallup poll released Friday also spells bad news for tea party candidates. Forty-two percent of registered voters (and 38 percent of independent voters) said they were less likely to vote for a candidate associated with the tea party movement. Meanwhile, 23 percent said they would be more likely to vote for tea party- affiliated candidate..

But Democrats shouldn’t pop the champagne corks just yet. Though Democrats win the generic ballot, their “favorable” and “unfavorable” public opinion numbers are both at 47 percent.

The poll does bring some good news for President Obama, who has trailed generic Republican candidates for two straight months. Friday’s Gallup poll has Obama beating a nameless Republican by six percentage points, 46 percent to 39.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. Gallup asked the questions after the recent debt ceiling battle subsided.

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