Despite overwhelming evidence that Proposition 140 lacks enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that votes on the measure will be counted this November. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AZFEC), which had successfully proven that nearly 40,000 signatures were duplicates, expressed deep disappointment with the court’s decision. This ruling ignores the signature verification process and pushes Arizona closer to adopting ranked choice voting—a system that has been shown to disenfranchise voters and skew election results. Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, criticized the ruling, pointing out that Prop 140 supporters deliberately delayed the signature review process. Arizona Free Enterprise Club states in their release:
“We are disappointed in the ruling of the court on this matter,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Our organization proved that the special interest groups attempting to hijack Arizona’s elections systems lacked the minimum number to qualify for the ballot to even be considered by voters in November.”
Prop 140, if passed, would introduce ranked choice voting and jungle primaries, a disastrous system that could lead to confusion, mistakes, and fewer choices for voters in the general election. Voters could find themselves choosing between candidates from only one party, all while their ballots may be discarded if they don’t rank every candidate. AZFEC remains committed to ensuring this ill-conceived measure is rejected at the ballot box. Arizona Free Enterprise Club states:
After the special master’s determination last month (that 99% of the 38,000 signatures reviewed were, in fact, duplicates), Proposition 140 should have been thousands of submissions under the constitutionally required signature threshold to qualify for the ballot.
Proposition 140 is seeking to enact a California-style election scheme built around ranked choice voting and jungle primaries.
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