“S.O.S. Ballot” Initiative faces court challenge

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "S.O.S. Ballot" Initiative (aka "Save Our Secret Ballot"), http://www.azsos.gov/election/2010/general/ballotmeasuretext/C-01-2010.pdf, faces a court challenge in the Maricopa County Superior Court today. A judge will hear arguments on whether Arizona’s general election ballot in November will include a referendum on secret ballots.

Description from the Secretary of State web site: "This initiative would protect that right against interference by federal, state or local governments. It places added guarantees into the Arizona Constitution that acknowledge that the right to vote by secret ballot is fundamental in elections traditionally recognized and protected by state or federal law, including elections for public office, ballot measures, and designations or authorizations of employee representation," i.e., workers voting on whether to organize as part of a labor union.

A labor union’s lawsuit contends that the ballot measure violates Arizona’s rule that constitutional ballot measures be limited to one question. Court to hear challenge to proposed ballot measure That seems clear from the face of the description of the initiative. Elections for public office and ballot measures fall under state statutes; union organizing elections are federal labor law.

Supporters of the initiative contend it doesn’t violate the “single-subject rule” and are asking to keep the measure on the ballot.

Initiative organizers were too clever by half. They included local, state and federal ballots for public office and ballot measures — ballots which are already secret ballots protected by law — to try to get around the legal problem of imposing a state constitutional limitation upon federal labor law through the initiative process. Even if this measure makes the ballot, there is a constitutional and legal basis to challenge the measure should it ever pass.