Ariz. affirmative action ban foes file challenge

Alleging fraud by petition circulators and other improprieties, opponents of a ballot measure to generally bar racial and gender preferences by the state government asked a court Monday to keep the initiative off the November ballot.

Protect Arizona's Freedom on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging about a third of the more than 300,000 petition signatures filed to qualify Proposition 104 for the ballot. Opponents say the signatures are ineligible for reasons other than the voter registration status of individuals who signed those petitions.

Disqualifying that many signatures would keep the measure off the ballot, said state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat who heads Protect Arizona's Freedom.

Violations included petitions circulated by felons whose civil rights hadn't been restored, petitions circulated by ineligible individuals who misrepresented their identities or addresses, and petition sheets not properly notarized, according to the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of two university students.

"One circulator, in specific, signed his own name to these petitions 16 times," Sinema said.

She added many of the petitions had the same names and addresses in different handwriting.

"So, for instance, lines 1 through 15 would have 15 different names and addresses and the very next petition would have those same names and addresses signed in different handwriting on the same day," Sinema said.

The proposed state constitutional amendment aimed at dismantling preferential treatment programs for women and minorities, the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, is championed by Ward Connerly.

The former California education official has succeeded in winning approval of similar measures in that state as well as Washington and Michigan and is also proposing versions this year in Colorado and Nebraska.

Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne said state and county elections officials had not yet finished their review of a random sample of Proposition 104 petitions to conclude whether there were enough valid signatures.

However, Sinema indicated she anticipated that the officials' checks of the sample would find it short of enough valid signatures. She said she hoped her group's lawsuit would persuade supporters of the measure to abandon their efforts.

``This lawsuit is a message to Ward Connerly,'' Sinema said, adding that Arizonans won't tolerate cheating.

Max McPhail, the initiative campaign's executive director, expressed confidence the measure will qualify for the ballot despite ``the technical issues'' cited in the lawsuit. It's ridiculous to think that felons collected many signatures, he said.

``It's the only way they have of making sure this doesn't pass,'' McPhail said. ``Once it's on the ballot, it will pass overwhelmingly,'' he said.

The new litigation on Proposition 104 comes as state courts already are wrestling with several lawsuits on other initiatives, including ones to get measures on state trust land and transportation financing on the ballot despite Secretary of State Jan Brewer's determinations that they lacked sufficient valid signatures.