REFERENCE TITLE: ballot measures; proposition 105; disclosure

 

 

 

 

State of Arizona

Senate

Fifty-fifth Legislature

First Regular Session

2021

 

 

 

SB 1497

 

Introduced by

Senator Ugenti-Rita

 

 

AN ACT

 

amending sections 19-123 and 19-125, Arizona Revised Statutes; relating to initiative and referendum.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 


Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 19-123, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE19-123. Publicity pamphlet; printing; distribution; public hearings

A. When the secretary of state is ordered by the legislature, or by petition under the initiative and referendum provisions of the constitution, to submit to the people a measure or proposed amendment to the constitution, the secretary of state shall cause to be printed, at the expense of the state, except as otherwise provided in this article, a publicity pamphlet, which shall contain that contains:

1. A true copy of the title and text of the measure or proposed amendment. Such text shall indicate material deleted, if any, by printing such material with a line drawn through the center of the letters of such material and shall indicate material added or new material by printing the letters of such material in capital letters.

2. The form in which the measure or proposed amendment will appear on the ballot, the official title, the descriptive title prepared by the secretary of state and the number by which it will be designated.

3. The arguments for and against the measure or amendment.

4. For any measure or proposed amendment, a legislative council analysis of the ballot proposal as prescribed by section 19-124.

5. The report of the commission on judicial performance review for any justices of the supreme court, judges of the court of appeals and judges of the superior court who are subject to retention.

6. The summary of a fiscal impact statement prepared by the joint legislative budget committee staff pursuant to subsection E of this section.

7. Immediately below the legislative council analysis, for any statutory measure, the following statement in boldfaced type:  "Notice: Pursuant to PROPOSITION 105 (1998), these measures cannot be changed in the future if approved on the ballot except by a THREE-fourths vote of the members of each house of the legislature and if the change furthers the purpose of the original ballot measure, or by referring the change to the ballot."

B. The secretary of state shall post the publicity pamphlet on the secretary of state's website as soon as is practicable after the pamphlet is printed and shall mail one copy of the publicity pamphlet to every household that contains a registered voter or, at the option of the voter, may make that delivery by e-mail.  The mailings may be made over a period of days but shall be mailed in order to be delivered to households before the earliest date for receipt by registered voters of any requested early ballots for the general election.

C. The secretary of state, on request by a voter, shall provide for the publicity pamphlet to be delivered to the voter by e-mail. The motor vehicle division of the department of transportation shall provide for persons to choose e-mail delivery by way of the secure internet portal operated by the department pursuant to section 16-112. The secretary of state and the motor vehicle division shall notify the voter that, unless all persons who are registered to vote at the voter's household also request e-mail delivery of the publicity pamphlet, the voter's household will receive a publicity pamphlet by regular mail. If the secretary of state receives a return e-mail that indicates the e-mail address provided by the voter is undeliverable, the secretary of state shall provide the publicity pamphlet to the voter by regular mail. Notwithstanding any other law, a voter's e-mail address may not be released for any other purpose.

D. Sample ballots for both the primary and general elections shall include a statement that information on how to obtain a publicity pamphlet for the general election ballot propositions is available by calling the secretary of state. The statement shall include a telephone number and mailing address of the secretary of state.

E. On certification of an initiative measure as qualified for the ballot, the secretary of state shall hold or cause to be held at least three public meetings on the ballot measure. Hearings shall be held in at least three different counties and shall be held before the date of the election on the measure. The hearings shall provide an opportunity for proponents, opponents and the general public to provide testimony and request information. Hearings may be scheduled to include more than one qualified ballot measure and shall include a fiscal impact presentation on the measure by the joint legislative budget committee staff. The joint legislative budget committee staff shall prepare a summary of the fiscal impact for each ballot measure, not to exceed three hundred words, for publication in the publicity pamphlet. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Section 19-125, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE19-125. Form of ballot

A. The secretary of state, at the time he the secretary of state transmits to the clerks of the boards of supervisors a certified copy of the name of each candidate for public office, shall transmit to each clerk a certified copy of the official title, the descriptive title and the number of each measure and proposed amendment to the constitution to be voted on at the ensuing regular general election.

B. Proposed constitutional amendments shall be numbered consecutively beginning with the number one hundred, proposed initiative measures shall be numbered consecutively beginning with the number two hundred, measures submitted under the referendum shall be numbered consecutively beginning with the number three hundred, and county and local issues shall be numbered consecutively beginning with the number four hundred.  Numbering shall be consecutive based on the order in which the initiative or referendum petitions are filed with the secretary of state. Individual numbering shall continue from the last number used in the previous election and shall not be repeated until all one hundred numbers in that series have been used.  Proposed constitutional amendments shall be placed by themselves at the head of the ballot column, followed by initiated and referred measures in that order. The number assigned to the measure by the secretary of state constitutes the official title of the measure and shall be used for identification of the measure by the state and the county in all subsequent official election materials, including the publicity pamphlet.

C. The officer in charge of elections shall print the official title and the descriptive title of each measure on the official ballot in the order presented to him by the secretary of state unless otherwise provided by law. The number of the measure shall be in reverse type and at least twelve point type. A proposed constitutional amendment shall be designated "proposed amendment to the constitution by the legislature", or "proposed amendment to the constitution by the initiative", as the case may be. A measure referred by the legislature shall be designated "referred to the people by the legislature", a measure referred by petition shall be designated "referendum ordered by petition of the people" and a measure proposed by initiative petition shall be designated "proposed by initiative petition".

D. There A descriptive title shall be printed on the official ballot immediately below the number of the measure and the official title of each measure. The descriptive title containing shall contain a summary of the principal provisions of the measure, not to exceed fifty words, which shall be prepared by the secretary of state and approved by the attorney general and that includes shall include the following or the ballot shall comply with subsection F of this section:

A "yes" vote shall have the effect of ______________________.

A "no" vote shall have the effect of _______________________.

The blank spaces shall be filled with a brief phrase, approved by the attorney general, stating the essential change in the existing law should the measure receive a majority of votes cast in that particular manner.  In the case of a referendum, a "yes" vote shall have the effect of approving the legislative enactment that is being referred.  The "yes" and "no" language shall be posted on the secretary of state's website after being approved by the attorney general and before the date on which the official ballots and the publicity pamphlet are sent to be printed.  Below the statement of effect of a "yes" vote and effect of a "no" vote there shall be printed the corresponding words "yes" and "no" and a place for the voter to put a mark as defined in section 16-400 indicating his the voter's preference.

e. In addition to the information prescribed by subsection D of this section, for state statutory measures, the officer in charge of elections shall print on the official ballot immediately before the first proposed state statutory initiative measure and immediately before the first proposed STATE statutory MEASURE submitted under the referendum the following statement:  "Notice:  Pursuant to PROPOSITION 105 (1998), these measures cannot be changed in the future if approved on the ballot except by a THREE-fourths vote of the members of each house of the legislature and if the change furthers the purpose of the original ballot measure, or by referring the change to the ballot."

E. F. Instead of printing the official and descriptive titles or the full text of each measure or question on the official ballot, the officer in charge of elections may print phrases on the official ballot that contain all of the following:

1. The number of the measure in reverse type and at least twelve point type.

2. The designation of the measure as prescribed by subsection C of this section or as a question, proposition or charter amendment, followed by the words "relating to..." and inserting the subject.

3. Either the statement prescribed by subsection D of this section that describes the effects of a "yes" vote and a "no" vote or, for other measures, the text of the question or proposition.

4. The words "yes" and "no" or "for" and "against", as may be appropriate and a place for the voter to put a mark.

5. for state statutory measures, immediately before the first proposed state statutory initiative measure and immediately before the first proposed state statutory measure submitted under the referendum the following statement:  "Notice:  Pursuant to PROPOSITION 105 (1998), these measures cannot be changed in the future if approved on the ballot except by a THREE-fourths vote of the members of each house of the legislature and if the change furthers the purpose of the original ballot measure, or by referring the change to the ballot."

F. G. For any ballot printed pursuant to subsection F of this section, the instructions on the official ballot shall direct the voter to the full text of the official and descriptive titles and the questions and propositions as printed on the sample ballot and posted in the polling place. END_STATUTE

Sec. 3. Severability

If a provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are severable.