Arizona voters will get to decide in November whether to add the right to an abortion to the state constitution.
The Arizona secretary of state’s office said Monday that it had certified 577,971 signatures — far above the required number that the coalition supporting the ballot measure had to submit in order to put the question before voters.
The coalition, Arizona for Abortion Access, said it is the most signatures validated for a citizens initiative in state history.
A reminder that the courts can still try and screw this up and have a history of trying to overturn citizen initiatives. so on your ballot also be sure to vote to not retain the judges when you vote this November if you’re in Arizona.
(reader mode should get you past the soft paywall for the link)
I used to maintain a list of every time the Republicans of Arizona attempted to stop voter initiatives after they’d been successfully passed.
Tried to stop legalizing medical marijuana by suing
Tried to stop the creation of an independent commission for drawing districts by suing. They’ve taken the commission to court on at least five separate occasions and lost (using taxpayer money of course)
Initiative to pay teachers more was dismantled and never took place
That’s just the top of my head. They also famously made voter initiatives harder to pass. But people still vote for them
Worth noting, this is exactly how gay marriage was legalized nationwide.
By a citizen initiative in Arizona? Sorry, I’m a bit confused, could you explain what you mean?
Ok, not exactly. California allowed voters to vote on banning gay marriage statewide since San Francisco made it legal in the city. That passed (thank you Mormons) resulting in gay marriage being banned. People sued and it went all the way up to the Supreme Court where they legalized gay marriage, overriding what the voters wanted.
This had a happy ending for courts screwing over voters. I think courts screwing over Arizona voters could only end poorly.
Thanks for the explanation.