Ballot measures update

Posted by AzblueMeanie:

The "S.O.S. Ballot" measure ("save our secret ballot"), Prop. 108, has been ruled ineligible by a judge because it violates the "single subject" rule for ballot measures. Prop. 108 is not eligible for Nov. ballot, judge rules:

A ballot measure intended to make it harder for unions to organize was structured illegally and cannot appear on the November ballot, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Oberbillig said Proposition 108 actually contains two separate subjects. One seeks to constitutionally guarantee a right to a secret ballot in public elections, and one guaranteeing the same right in union organizing elections.

"The topics … are not sufficiently or logically related to one another," the judge ruled.

Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute, who is representing supporters of Proposition 108, said an appeal will be filed with the Arizona Supreme Court. But of course.

Lynn Weaver, chair of what was dubbed the Prop 13 Arizona initiative, said Tuesday the effort to gather the necessary 230,047 valid signatures by Wednesday’s deadline will fall short. Petitions to get AZ tax measure on ballot fail This is the second time the plan has come up short: It also failed to gather enough signatures for the 2008 election.

Organizers of a grassroots campaign to ban speed cameras in Arizona state highways and local streets plan to file initiative petitions on Thursday's deadline to qualify the measure for the November ballot. Backers of Ariz. initiative on cameras to file.

The only initiative to qualify for the ballot so far is one on medical marijuana. Arizona will vote on medical marijuana:

The Arizona campaign is largely bankrolled by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which provided most of the $487,250 spent by the state effort through Dec. 31, nearly all for paid signature collectors.

* * *

Campaign manager Andrew Myers said the next step is to begin educating voters about what the initiative hopes to accomplish.

"This is about protecting our most vulnerable citizens from a really cruel and unnecessary law that forces them to live in fear when all they want to do is acquire medication that makes their life worth living," Myers said.

"This is about protecting people who are seriously or terminally ill from being arrested just for following their doctor's advice."

The initiative proposes to allow patients with a debilitating medical condition such as cancer, HIV or multiple sclerosis to purchase, possess and use 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks with a doctor's recommendation.

Non-profit dispensaries regulated by the state would grow and sell the drug to approved patients.

It still would be illegal to use marijuana in a public place or to drive under the influence of marijuana in Arizona, but the initiative forbids employers from firing qualified medical-marijuana users who test positive for the drug unless they can prove patients used or were impaired while at work.

A campaign committee has been established to fight the initiative. Stop the Pot, run by Max Fose and Judy Connell of Phoenix, had collected no donations as of Dec. 31, but Fose had contributed $2,500 in in-kind work to develop www.stopthepot.com.

* * *

This is the fourth time since 1996 Arizona voters have been asked to decriminalize marijuana as a medicine.

The deadline to file initiative petitions is today. We'll see if anyone else makes it under the wire.

UPDATE: The photo radar initiative came up short and did not file. Medical marijuana is the only initiative this year. Nine measures supported by right-wing think tanks were fast-tracked to the ballot as referendums by the GOP-controlled legislature. The "save our secret ballot" measure has been disqualified, but is on appeal.