Let the games begin! Petition challenge week

The Arizona Capitol Times reported this weekend that “By the end of business on June 5, the secretary of state had received more than 175 requests to inspect candidates’ qualifying signatures.”

Only a small number of these reviews will wind up in court this week as legal challenges to the sufficiency of petition signatures and/or the petition circulators who passed the the petitions.

Every year there are candidates disqualified from the ballot for failing to submit enough qualified signatures to qualify for the ballot.

I am aware of several challenges currently under review by attorneys this weekend. If and when those cases are actually filed in court this week, I will do my best to report on the progress of those cases.

Any Arizonan can challenge a candidate’s nomination petitions for office, but the deadline to file is Wednesday, June 11 by 5:00 p.m. The Superior Court then has ten (10) days from the date the challenge is filed to render its decision, and the parties have five days after that to file an appeal directly with the Arizona Supreme Court, which must rule “promptly.”

Let the games begin!

NB: The red card is a nod to the World Cup — a red card means that the player who fouled must leave the field immediately and take no further part in the game.