In response to the rapid development of the COVID-19 crisis, Arizona’s Outlaw Dirty Money campaign has decided to pause its efforts to collect petition signatures. Below is a letter announcing this decision from the campaign co-chairs.
With heavy hearts but a strong commitment to Arizona’s public health, we announce today that the Outlaw Dirty Money Constitutional Amendment campaign otherwise known as the “Citizens Right to Know Initiative” has paused all person to person efforts to gather petition signatures.
This suspension will last until our public health experts and our elected leaders deem it prudent for our volunteers and paid gatherers to resume public contact. At that time, we will decide if enough time is left to gather enough signatures to put the issue of transparency in Arizona campaign finance before the voters in November.
As of today, Thursday March 26, the one-year anniversary of filing our initiative with the Secretary of State, we have collected over 275,000 signatures, just 81,000 short of the minimum requirement of 356,000. We were on track to qualify before the July 2nd deadline.
When the Arizona Legislature reconvenes, we will ask them to consider several measures to ensure that the constitutional rights of Arizona voters to petition their government are not denied because of a commitment to public health. We intend to request the Legislature and the Governor to:
- Grant electronic signature gathering authority to municipal elections, initiatives and referenda.
- Extend the deadline for filing petitions for the 2020 ballot or allow the current signatures to remain valid until the 2022 election.
The current system permits candidates for the Legislature to use E-Qual for their own petition signature requirements, yet denies those rights to municipal candidates, initiative and referenda. This crisis makes it clear why all petitions should be able to gather valid signatures electronically and not have to depend on person to person contact. We deserve equal treatment under the law.
At the very least, in this unprecedented crisis, the Legislature should permit the 275,000 Arizona voters who so far have petitioned for the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative to appear on the ballot to have their signatures remain valid until the next election in 2022.
Polling data and municipal elections in both Tempe and Phoenix have confirmed that more than 8 out of 10 Arizona voters support having the right to know who really funds Arizona elections. Our legislative requests are clearly the right thing to do and this unprecedented health care crisis provides a powerful additional reason to act.
During this pause, Outlaw Dirty Money will keep working with our army of volunteers, ready to act when the health crisis abates. In the meantime, they will do all possible to gather signatures without person to person contact. If you would like to help that effort, please contact us at info@outlawdirtymoney.com or call 602-633-5146. If you support the suggested legislation changes, we encourage you to contact your legislator at https://www.azleg.gov/memberroster/
Co-chairs of Voters’ Right to Know initiative,
Terry Goddard
Grant Woods
Paul Johnson
Helene and Jim Babbitt
Robert Bertrand
Nan and Dick Walden
Tom Horne
