Voters in Arizona will decide on two constitutional amendments, one from the legislature and one citizen-initiated, related to the state’s electoral system on Nov. 5. The ballot measures are Proposition 133 and Proposition 140, and both would address primary elections.
Currently, Arizona has semi-closed partisan primaries in which voters, registered with political parties, choose their party’s candidates for the general election. Independents can participate in one party’s primaries. The candidate who receives the most votes advances to the general election, where the candidate competes against other political parties’ nominees and independent candidates. Voters elect two candidates per district for the Arizona House of Representatives, in which case two candidates can advance from political parties’ primaries.
The citizen-initiated constitutional amendment, Proposition 140, was certified for the ballot on Aug. 15. Proposition 140 would make several changes to the state’s electoral system, including:
- replacing partisan primaries with primaries in which candidates, regardless of partisan affiliation, appear on a single ballot and a certain number advance to the general election, such as top-two or top-four primaries;
- requiring candidates to receive a majority of votes in general elections;
- requiring the use of ranked-choice voting in general elections when three or more candidates advance from the primaries (for one-winner general elections); and
- prohibiting using public funds to administer partisan primaries at the federal, state, and local levels, except for presidential preference primaries that allow independents to participate.
The campaign supporting Proposition 140, the Make Elections Fair PAC, submitted 584,124 signatures. The office of Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) verified 559,379 signatures, and Judge Frank Moskowitz of the Maricopa County Superior Court invalidated an additional 16,705 signatures, leaving the ballot initiative with 536,216 verified signatures. At least 383,923 signatures needed to be valid.
Sarah Smallhouse, chairperson of the Make Elections Fair PAC, said, “With independent and unaffiliated voters now accounting for the largest part of the Arizona electorate it’s illogical to confine voter choices in the primaries to the very parties they’ve chosen to separate from. Let all candidates compete, let the voters decide and let the best candidates win.” Jeff DeWit, former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, commented on the ballot initiative, saying, “Republicans don’t want Democrats voting for our primary candidates, and I’m sure Democrats don’t want us voting for theirs. All unaffiliated voters, or as they are commonly referred to as, Independents, already can and do vote on the primaries to make their voices heard.”
Proposition 140 isn’t the first ballot initiative to seek to change primaries in Arizona. In 2012, voters rejected Proposition 121, a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to replace partisan primaries with top-two primaries. The vote was 33% ‘Yes’ to 67% ‘No’.
The Arizona State Legislature referred a competing measure, Proposition 133, to the ballot. Proposition 133 would add much of the existing system to the Arizona Constitution, while prohibiting primaries where all candidates, regardless of partisan affiliation, run in the same primaries, such as top-two, top-four, and top-five primaries.
Legislators were divided along partisan lines regarding Proposition 133. Legislative Republicans supported referring the measure to the ballot, while legislative Democrats opposed the effort.
As the two constitutional amendments, Proposition 133 and Proposition 140, conflict with one another, the one with the most votes would be enacted should both receive at least a majority of votes.
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