Republicans are trying (again) to squeeze you out of the initiative process

When Arizona became a state in 1912, the founders included in the state’s constitution the ability for citizens to gather signatures in order to put an initiative on the statewide ballot -- Article 4 Section 1.

It didn’t take long for citizens to act.

There had been a movement within the territory to give women the right to vote. But it couldn’t get through the Legislature.

After statehood, however, supporters used the new initiative process to put women’s suffrage on the ballot, and in the 1912 election it passed, putting Arizona ahead of most of the country, which didn’t ratify the 19th Amendment guaranteeing American women the right to vote until 1920.

What are current day Republicans messing with the founders?

Initiative power is one of the genius decisions made by the individuals who crafted Arizona’s constitution.

So why is it that for years the Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature have tried to make it more and more difficult for ordinary citizens to put an initiative on the ballot?

And why are Republicans in the Legislature today trying again to squeeze citizens out of the initiative process with Senate Concurrent Resolution 1041?

The answer, in a word, is power.

The Republicans who control the Legislature don’t want you to have any.

An attempt to put more roadblocks in front of citizens

This latest proposal would allow any citizen the ability to challenge the constitutionality of a ballot initiative before it’s voted on. The sponsor, Republican Sen. J.D. Mesnard, told The Arizona Mirror, “This is just saying, before we go through all this effort, we’re going to sort it out in court.”

This, of course, is political BS. Lawmakers do not allow the bills under consideration at the Legislature to go to court before they pass them. And why would they? They are not law until they pass. Same with initiatives.

Mesnard’s resolution aims to throw a few more roadblocks into the initiative process, to force proponents into spending money on litigation instead of promotion. To jam up the works.

Todays voters face challenges similar to the suffragettes

In a way, 2024 Republicans are acting like the good ‘ol boys running the Legislature back in the early 1900s. Back then, suffragettes got around them by using the initiative process, and discovered that a majority of Arizonans wanted women to vote.

There should be issue like that on this year’s ballot.

Faced with the possibility of a return to an 1864 abortion ban that comes with a two- to five-year prison sentence for anyone providing an abortion, Arizona citizens are working to put an initiative on the ballot that would restore women’s reproductive rights to the level before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Legislature could have fixed this, but won't.

So a group called Arizona Abortion Access is working to collect 383,923 valid signatures by July 3 in order to put it to a statewide vote. As of mid-January they are said to have surpassed the 250,000 mark.

Getting it on the ballot isn’t easy and it doesn’t guarantee success. It simply lets citizens decide. As they did in 1912 when Arizonans gave women the right to vote.

A decision that still seems to irritate some people.

Reach Montini at [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GOP wants to squeeze you out of the initiative process