Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signs bill banning pay-per-signature for initiative petitions

Gov. Doug Ducey late Thursday signed into law a bill that will reshape how citizen-initiative campaigns are conducted in Arizona.

The measure, House Bill 2404, was promoted as a way to fight fraud in petition-signature gathering by banning the paying of circulators for each signature they collect. Instead, they would most likely earn an hourly wage.

Critics denounce it as an attempt to throttle the citizen-initiative process, arguing it will remove the incentive for circulators to gather the thousands of signatures needed to qualify a measure for the ballot.

"We live in a state where citizens have significant input into the policy-making process," Ducey said in a statement accompanying the announcement he had signed the bill. "That’s a good thing, and this tweak to the law helps ensure the integrity of ballot measures moving forward.”

The bill moved though the Legislature on a wave of Republican support and frequent protests from Democrats and activists. On Thursday, it won final House approval on a 34-22 vote that split along party lines. A day earlier, it cleared the Senate on a similar partisan vote, 17-13. The governor moved with unusual speed in signing the measure.

Meanwhile, two other Republican-sponsored proposals to restrict the initiative process appear to have hit a dead end in the Senate.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear Yuma Rep. Don Shooter's House Concurrent Resolution 2029, which would have required every citizen initiative to have signatures from at least 10 percent of the voters in each state's 30 legislative districts to qualify. That would grow to 15 percent for a constitutional amendment.

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It also was slated to hear House Concurrent Resolution 2002, Scottsdale Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita's annual effort to refer a repeal of the Voter Protection Act to the ballot.

But committee chairwoman Sen. Judy Burges, R-Sun City West, pulled the two items from the agenda. Senate President Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said he didn't talk to her directly, but said there were "other ways" to convey hesitations about the two bills.

The measures would "struggle" to get through the Senate, Yarbrough said.

Chamber delighted  

The ban on paying per signature was a priority for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which praised its passage.

“We are extremely gratified by the passage of this bill, which we believe will add greater rigor and integrity to the initiative process," said Garrick Taylor, the chamber's senior vice president of government relations. "Hopefully, by shifting to a new payment structure, we will see less fraud and fewer invalid signatures.”

Critics questioned how much fraud has bedeviled the initiative process, and argued HB 2404 will do little to end it.

What the legislation will end, said Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, is the ability of grassroots groups to launch a ballot measure. It will drive up the cost, he told House members, meaning only organizations with deep pockets like the chamber or unions will have the money to pay circulators, who presumably would be paid on an hourly basis.

Rep. Reginald Bolding, D-Phoenix, said the bill will have the opposite effect of curbing the influence of big money on Arizona elections, as its supporters contended.

"This actually opens the door for that," he said.

Backlash to minimum-wage hike

The bill was widely viewed as a response to last fall's successful minimum-wage ballot measure, Proposition 206.

Business groups complained that many of the signatures gathered by paid circulators were invalid, but that they ran out of time to challenge them in court. The bill extends to two weeks the amount of time anyone can bring a challenge; it currently is five days.

And they pointed to a payment dispute between the committee promoting the higher minimum wage and the petition firm it hired. The committee refused to pay the firm in full, arguing many of the petition circulators were improperly registered, meaning the signatures they gathered would not count.

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But HB 2404 does nothing to address that problem, said Bill Scheel, who advised the Prop. 206 campaign. Settlement talks are underway after the petition firm sued and the committee counter-sued.

Scheel hinted that the bill may face a further fight. There have been talks among progressive groups about referring the matter back to the voters on the November 2018 ballot, or potentially suing, but nothing is definitive.

"We're not prepared to accept this as the final word," he said, speaking as a citizen activist and not for the Prop. 206 campaign.

Payment is an insult

House Speaker J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, said he's offended by the notion of paying for signatures. He said he almost would welcome a referral to the ballot because it would put the practice in the public spotlight.

"By the time November of '18 arrives, every single voter out there will know that the vast majority of signatures are bought," he said as he cast his vote in support of the bill.

The payment issue is thorny.

Citizen petitions that seek to add a new state law need the signatures of 150,642 voters to qualify for the 2018 ballot. It's a higher bar to amend the state Constitution: 225,963 signatures.

Those numbers are almost impossible to obtain without paying people to collect them, critics said. Most measures are launched in an election year and must meet a July deadline, meaning a lot of the work is done in some of Arizona's hottest months. Supporters noted that anyone looking to launch a citizen initiative has two years to collect signatures if they file early.

Rep. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, said the fuss over paying circulators is curious.

“I see nothing wrong with paying people to do this work," she said. "It's work."

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Besides, the bill won't stop paid circulators, critics said. If it's such a heinous process, they argued, candidates also should be subject to the pay-per-signature ban. The bill only pertains to citizen initiatives. Many candidates pay circulators to help them gather enough signatures for their nominating petitions.

What's next

The bill won't have the force of law until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. It's not clear when that will happen.

Other measures intended to rein in the initiative process appear stalled.

Bills from Ugenti-Rita to allow the Legislature to repeal matters referred by voters to the ballot never received a hearing in the Senate by Thursday's committee hearing deadline. Her HB 2320, to require a disclosure statement that initiatives are subject to the Voter Protection Act be printed on ballots, publicity pamphlets and advertising materials for an initiative, also never received a Senate hearing.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.