Sec. of State Brewer Announces Dismissal of Two Ballot Measure Challenges

Court Rules that Challengers Failed to Timely Challenge Disqualification

PHOENIX -- Secretary of State Jan Brewer announced today that the Maricopa County Superior Court dismissed the challenges filed against her by proponents of the disqualified ballot measures, Transportation Infrastructure Moving Arizona’s Economy (Proposition 203) and Our Schools, Our Land (Proposition 103). Both challenges were filed after Secretary Brewer disqualified the measures for failing to file enough valid signatures.

“The judge’s ruling today reaffirms the longstanding principle that election challenges must be brought timely and resolved expeditiously,” stated Secretary Brewer. “My staff finished the processing of the petitions at issue several weeks ago. The law clearly states that any challenges had to be brought within ten days. That did not happen here and the judge correctly dismissed the matter.”

By law the Secretary of State has twenty business days to process filed petitions, which includes removing petitions not attached to true and correct copies of the text, petition sheets not properly signed by circulators, and removing other improper signatures. When this process is complete, a five percent random sample of petition signatures is sent to the respective county recorders for verification. The county recorders have fifteen business days to perform their verifications and when they are complete the Secretary of State determines whether the measure qualifies for the ballot based on the validity rate of the sample.

In this case, both measures projected below the number necessary to qualify the measures for the 2008 general election ballot and both were disqualified by Secretary Brewer. “I never believed that either of these challenges had any merit. The state and county election officials conducted their jobs according to the letter of the law and these measures simply fell short of the needed signatures,” stated Secretary Brewer.

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