Update: Second Referendum to refer S.B. 1070 to the ballot begins

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this week I reported that Jon Garrido, the publisher of Hispanic News, had pulled paperwork on Monday to begin a referendum to refer S.B. 1070 to the ballot. Hispanic News Starts Process for Referendum to Repeal SB 1070.

Yesterday, a group calling itself One Arizona filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office to begin a petition drive to overturn S.B. 1070. I most strongly urge the two groups to combine your efforts and work together on a single referendum. You do not want to divide your efforts.

Arizona Capitol Times »Referendum against immigration law could delay implementation by years:

If the group wants the referendum to be on the November ballot, it must collect 76,682 signatures and turn them in before the immigration law takes effect 90 days after the legislative session ends.

But if organizers submit their signatures after July 1 – the deadline for citizen initiatives, but not for referenda – the Secretary of State’s Office said it cannot guarantee that it will have enough time to prepare the referendum for the November 2010 ballot. If not, the issue would appear instead on the November 2012 ballot.

The implementation of a new law is put on hold when a referendum on the law qualifies for the ballot. If the Secretary of State’s Office is unable to verify the validity of the signatures on One Arizona’s referendum in time for the Nov. 2 election, it would go to voters in the 2012 general election, meaning S1070 would not take effect for more than two years.

Matt Benson, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said One Arizona’s referendum against S1070 could be placed on the November ballot if the group submits its signatures after July 1. But that would depend on a number of factors, including the number of signatures, when they were submitted, and how many other referenda were being verified by the Secretary of State’s Office.

“If they file after July 1 it’s uncertain,” Benson said. “We don’t know. And that’s just the simple truth as of today.”

Once the signatures are submitted, it takes about 40 business days for the Secretary of State’s Office and the counties to verify the signatures, and for anyone who wants to challenge the petitions to do so.

Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said counties start printing the backs of their ballots – which include ballot questions – on Aug. 27, weeks before they print the front sides. The ballots must be ready by the time early voting begins on Oct. 7.

Osborne agreed with the Secretary of State’s Office that it would be difficult to get the referendum on the November ballot if it’s submitted after July 1, and said it’s impossible to say exactly when One Arizona would have to submit its signatures to ensure that its referendum will be on the ballot.

“How far can you push the pencil off the desk? I don’t know. It depends,” she said.

An extended delay in the implementation of S1070 may be exactly what One Arizona is planning, according to Andrew Chavez, of the signature-gathering firm Petition Partners. Chavez’s firm was hired by One Arizona to collect signatures for the ballot measure, but he said he could not yet disclose who was organizing the ballot measure.

“Typically I’m not involved in strategic discussions, but I can see this as being something they’re looking at,” Chavez said of the possible two-year delay for S1070.

If One Arizona gets its referendum on the 2012 ballot, it may be a boon to groups that plan to challenge S1070 in court. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund plan on filing a joint lawsuit against the law, and attorneys from the two organizations say they will ask the courts for an injunction to prevent the law from going into effect until the case is settled.

A successful legal challenge may be S1070 opponents’ best chance for stopping the new law…

Assistant Secretary of State Jim Drake said the Legislature could essentially invalidate the ballot measure’s hold on S1070 by amending the law. But One Arizona or another opposition group could simply file a new referendum against the amended law and put the bill on hold once again, he said.