More good news from the courtroom on Friday. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging thousands of petitions gathered supporting the Fair Wages and Healthy Families initiative (Prop. 206) to increase Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 over the next four years. $12 Arizona minimum-wage measure on the November ballot, judge rules:
During court hearings earlier this month, the Arizona Restaurant Association argued that many of the people collecting signatures were not properly registered with the state, so their petitions should be invalidated.
The state requires paid and out-of-state petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State’s Office. They must show they are 18 or older and have an address where they can be reached. Individuals who have been charged with a felony are also not allowed to circulate petitions for pay.
“It’s a privilege to use out-of-state circulators for petitions,” attorney Roopali Desai argued on behalf of the restaurant association. “There are many, many circulators who didn’t register, so their petitions are invalid.”
She said some registration forms appeared as if they were illegally altered after a circulator turned them in, claiming there were “some shenanigans and fraud involved.”
But the ruling came down to a technicality: The law requires that signatures be challenged within five days of their submission to the Secretary of State’s Office. After a thorough discussion of whether that meant business days or calendar days, Judge Joshua Rogers dismissed the case, saying the suit hadn’t been filed in a timely manner.