{"id":15189842,"date":"2026-07-02T00:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/mail-in-voting-initiative-fails-to-make-the-november-ballot\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T00:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:56:46","slug":"mail-in-voting-initiative-fails-to-make-the-november-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/mail-in-voting-initiative-fails-to-make-the-november-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail-in voting initiative fails to make the November ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\" \/><figcaption>\n<p style=\"font-size:12px\">Photo by Jim Small | Arizona Mirror<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Democratic campaign to ask voters to enshrine the right to vote by mail into the Arizona Constitution has failed to gather enough signatures to make it on the November ballot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The political action committee behind the campaign, Protect the Vote Arizona, announced a day before the deadline that its 2,000 volunteers had gathered 439,000 signatures, not enough to withstand inevitable challenges to and disqualifications of thousands of those signatures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<aside>        <a href=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/subscribe\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" aria-label=\"Get the morning headlines delivered to your inbox.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"subscribeShortcodeContainer\">\n<div class=\"subscribeTextContainer\">\n                <i class=\"fas fa-envelope\"><\/i><\/p>\n<p>GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribeButtonContainer\">\n<div>SUBSCRIBE<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <\/a><br \/>\n        <\/aside>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spokeswoman Stacy Pearson said the campaign would instead focus on a legal challenge to the Republican ballot referral that Protect the Vote Arizona was created to compete with in November.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With a requirement to gather 383,923 valid voter signatures before the July 2 deadline, Protect the Vote Arizona\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.arizona.vote\/electioninfo\/assets\/69\/0\/BallotMeasures\/I-08-2026%20Free,%20Fair%20and%20Secure%20Elections%20Act.pdf?__cf_chl_f_tk=0OnJmN1rui7DYeysoVqY7tWPG0WM0BXJq.t2j8uYs8Y-1782946895-1.0.1.1-it2nOOK500MNBMOG.rPtdd4ABv0qaf1QuFA2YwwUWTQ\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free, Fair and Secure Elections Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> faced an uphill battle since volunteers began collecting signatures in the spring. The ballot initiative was filed with the secretary of state in March and had only gathered 50,000 signatures as of May 6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cFacing an impossible 88 percent validity requirement, the campaign made a strategic decision to not turn over the signatures of hundreds of thousands of mail-in voting supporters to the very election-denying politicians (i.e. Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap) that this measure was designed to protect against,\u201d Stacy Pearson, spokeswoman for the campaign, said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Citizens initiatives typically try to gather 25% more signatures than necessary, to account for signatures that are disqualified.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">State Rep. Alexander Kolodin, who authored the Republican ballot referral that the Protect the Vote campaign was designed to challenge, celebrated its failure in a social media post.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt isn&#8217;t November yet but I just beat Democrat Adrian Fontes at the ballot box!\u201d Kolodin wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kolodin is running in the Republican primary for secretary of state, in hopes of facing incumbent Fontes, one of many Democrats who backed the Protect the Vote Arizona initiative, in November.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the post, Kolodin called the failed initiative the \u201cCalifornia-Style Elections Act\u201d and asked readers to donate to his campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Adrian Fontes&#8217; radical California-style ballot proposition would have made our elections even more lawless and chaotic,&#8221; Kolodin said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. &#8220;I&#8217;m pleased to see that voters rejected it just as they will reject Mr. Fontes in November.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kolodin\u2019s ballot referral would prohibit foreign nationals from spending money to influence elections, require every voter to show government identification before casting a ballot in every election and require all polling locations to provide on-site tabulation of ballots for voters who want it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Voters who cast a ballot in person are already required to present ID, but those who vote by mail use signature verification to confirm their identities. When Democratic lawmakers questioned how Arizonans who vote by mail would produce ID, as required in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.azleg.gov\/BillStatus\/BillOverview\/83527?SessionId=130\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">House Concurrent Resolution 2001,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> its Republican supporters brushed that concern aside.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Republicans repeatedly said that HCR 2001, dubbed the \u201cFast Accurate Secure Transparent Election Results Act,\u201d would not impact vote by mail, despite concerns from county recorders, elections officials and Democrats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kolodin has been trying to pass similar legislation, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/2025\/02\/10\/republicans-want-arizona-to-count-votes-like-florida-its-not-that-simple\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">based on Florida\u2019s voting practices<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, for two years. The final, pared down version of his House Concurrent Resolution 2001 was passed via a final party-line vote during the marathon last day of this year\u2019s legislative session, which began in the late morning of June 12 and lasted until 4:45 a.m. the next day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Kolodin, HCR2001 is intended to restore trust in the state\u2019s elections and to speed up results, both stated concerns of Republicans who made baseless claims that the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pearson said in the statement that Protect the Vote Arizona \u201cremains committed to disqualifying the Arizona legislature\u2019s democracy-eroding referral (HCR2001) in court, and ultimately electing a slate of pro-democracy candidates in November.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">HCR2001 is one of five controversial last-minute ballot referrals that the Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature sent to voters that are now facing legal challenges to keep them off the ballot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy Keating, a member of the Tempe City Council, filed the challenge to Kolodin\u2019s elections overhaul, arguing that it violates the state\u2019s single-subject rule because it addresses multiple election processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;While it is disappointing that the Protect the Vote initiative <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/us.list-manage.com\/oOS6khdQnWQ?e=ad02bef0cc&amp;c2id=44ef914f649245963c0c6dd46dde72bb\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">will not be<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> submitting signatures for ballot consideration, the issue of protecting vote-by-mail remains top of mind for Arizonans,\u201d Patti O\u2019Neil, chairwoman of the Maricopa County Democratic Party said in a statement. \u201cMore than 85% of voters, regardless of party, use vote-by-mail and have done so for the past 30 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">No-excuse mail-in voting was enacted by Arizona Republicans in 1991.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>***UPDATE: This story has been updated with a comment from state Rep. Alexander Kolodin.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>        <a href=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/donate\/?oa_referrer=midstorybox\" style=\"text-decoration:none\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"donateContainer\">\n<div class=\"donateTextContainer\">\n<p>YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"donateButtonContainer\">\n<div>SUPPORT<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <\/a><br \/>\n        <\/aside>\n<p class=\"inmi-source\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/briefs\/mail-in-voting-initiative-fails-to-make-the-november-ballot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">News \u2013 World \u2013 Phoenix \u2013 rss.app2 \u2192 manual entry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Democratic campaign to ask voters to enshrine the right to vote by mail into the Arizona Constitution has failed to gather enough signatures to make it on the November ballot.\u00a0 The political action committee behind the campaign, Protect the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15189844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15189842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-phoenix"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1.jpg",1024,614,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-620x372.jpg",620,372,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-768x461.jpg",768,461,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-940x564.jpg",940,564,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1.jpg",1024,614,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1.jpg",1024,614,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-998x614.jpg",998,614,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1.jpg",1024,614,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15189842-mail-ballots-2022-mailbox-1024x614-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"<a 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