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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
ballot measures; circulators; revenue; disclosure
Purpose
Applies the strict compliance standard of review to initiatives and referendum for cities, towns and counties and subjects petition circulators to additional requirements.
Background
Circulators of statewide initiatives and referendum who are not Arizona residents or who receive compensation for obtaining signatures must register as circulators with the Secretary of State (SOS) before circulating petitions. Any signatures collected by a circulator who fails to register must be disqualified by the SOS. Registration applications for circulators must include outlined information, including the circulator's identifying information, the initiative or referendum petition for which the circulator will gather signatures and a signed affidavit. Persons are disqualified from participating as circulators if they: 1) have had civil or criminal penalties imposed for elections violations within the last five years; 2) have been convicted of treason or a felony; or 3) have been convicted of any criminal offense involving fraud, forgery or identity theft. Any person may challenge the lawful registration of circulators in the superior court of the county where the circulator is registered (A.R.S. § 19-118).
When circulating initiative petitions, each petition sheet must indicate whether the circulator is a paid circulator or a volunteer (A.R.S. § 19-102). Circulators may not be paid or receive any other thing of value based on the number of signatures collected for statewide initiatives and referendum. Signatures obtained in violation of this prohibition are void and must not be counted (A.R.S. § 19-118.01).
Constitutional
and statutory requirements relating to form and content for statewide
initiative measures must be strictly construed, and persons using the
initiative process must strictly comply with these requirements. Any committee
that uses the strict compliance sample initiative provided by the SOS is
presumed to have strictly complied with these requirements (A.R.S.
§ 19-102.01).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires paid circulators, when approaching a potential petition signer, to verbally disclose the circulator's first name, the state in which the circulator legally resides and that they are a paid circulator.
2. Requires paid circulators to also wear a clearly visible badge that indicates the circulator is a paid circulator, their first name and last initial and the state in which the circulator resides.
3. Applies the strict compliance standard of review that exists for statewide initiative measures to initiative measures for cities, towns and counties.
4. Requires paid circulators and circulators that are non-Arizona residents who are circulating petitions for a city, town or county to register with the SOS.
5. Applies the prohibition against a circulator receiving payment for the number of signatures collected to circulators for any initiative or referendum petitions, rather than statewide initiative and referendum petitions only.
6. Allows an applicable filing officer, rather than just the SOS, to disqualify signatures collected by circulators who fail to register.
7. Requires any municipal or county initiative or referendum measure that proposes a mandatory expenditure, establishes a fund for any specific purpose or allocates funding for any specific purpose to provide a disclosure of the expenditure, fund or allocation and the source of increased revenues sufficient to cover the entire immediate and future costs of the proposal.
8. Requires this disclosure to be provided in the initiative or referendum description.
9. Modifies the definition of paid circulator.
10. Makes technical changes.
11. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 6, 2026
ZD/ci