Arizona Supreme Court is asked to reconsider Proposition 140

The political committee behind a ballot Proposition 140 to end partisan primaries is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reconsider its order that allowed a challenge to the initiative’s place on the ballot to move forward.

The group argues some counties have begun printing ballots and called the court’s action “unprecedented” and contrary to more than 80 years of case law. The big issue is determining whether some 40,000 signatures gathered for Proposition 140, the Make Elections Fair Act, which were already deemed valid are actually duplicates. The outcome could jeopardize the measure’s place on the ballot.

A trial court judge had earlier ruled against the signature challenge, determining that Proposition 140 had about 32,000 petition signatures more than needed.

Chuck Coughlin, President of HighGround Inc., an organization leading the campaign for Proposition 140, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss his support for and troubles with the ballot measure.

”[Proposition 140] opens primaries. It creates a non-partisan open primary. It treats every voter and every candidate equally, signature requirements to get on the ballot and allows voters to vote for whomever they want,” Coughlin said.

Since getting this proposition on the ballot, Coughlin and his team have had many legal issues from an opposing organization, Free Enterprise Club, which had sued to keep the measure off the ballot. Today, however, a Maricopa County judge ruled in favor of keeping the proposition on the ballot.

“I am confident our committee has spent, has already spent or is going to spend over a half a million dollars just defending this,” Coughlin said. “There is no justice period unless every voter gets treated equally.”