Journalists’ Roundtable on ballot measures and voter registration

Aug. 23

This week’s Journalists’ Roundtable topics included:

U.S. Supreme Court limits voter registration
Abortion rights measure to ballot
Tipped workers measure to ballot
Ansari wins CD3
Apache County drama
Open primary measure to ballot?

First, the Journalists’ Roundtable addressed the complex topic of voter registration in Arizona, with the involvement of the new Supreme Court.

Duda explained the dual registration in Arizona where one must show citizenship to vote in state elections but can fill out a federal form to vote in federal elections.

Small said this will only affect voters who register from Aug. 22 onwards, which could have strong implications for the upcoming election. He added that election officials cannot contact voters who don’t properly register.

“There are going to be a lot of people who show up on election day, thinking they’re allowed to vote because they are citizens and temporary residents of Arizona, and they will be turned away from the polls,” Small said.

Next, the roundtable dove into the topic of an abortion measure that has been put on the ballot, Prop. 139. The ballot survived a court challenge to make it to voters.

The proposition went to court over the 200-word description of the measure that would be available for voters to read on the ballot.

“Anti-abortion activists were arguing that it was so misleading that it made it unconstitutional,” Small said.

The Arizona Supreme Court unanimously decided to allow the measure to go through because a description of the impact of the ballot is not needed.

The journalists moved on to the subject of an open primary measure being added to the ballot, although Duda claims one’s vote might not actually count for this measure.

The main issue the measure faces is simply not having enough signatures by the deadline needed for the measure to get on the ballot in each county.

The group then moved to the tipped workers measure that has been added to the ballot, with the only challenge to the measure being the opposition believing it to be deceptively titled.

The roundtable tackled the topic of Yassamin Ansari winning CD3 after a mandatory recount. Pitzl noted that the recount merely picked up a few more votes for Raquel Teran, but not enough for a win.

Finally, the journalists discussed the drama surrounding the Apache County drama surrounding the indictment of both County Attorney Michael Whiting and County Superintendent of Schools Joy Whiting. The Attorney General cited public corruption in the reasoning for the indictment.