Supporters of affirmative action have taken to the streets to protest a petition drive to put the so-called ``Arizona Civil Rights Initiative" on the November ballot.

They gathered near City Hall in downtown Phoenix Thursday to denounce the initiative as a fraud. They said its goal is to end all affirmative action and equal opportunity programs in the state of Arizona. The protesters said the ballot proposal is deceptively-worded, that petition circulators lie about the intent and that teams of well-paid out-of-state petition circulators are representing themselves as Arizonans.

Shanta Driver of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action said she has been fighting the sponsor of the measure, Ward Connerly, in Oklahoma and other states.

``We stopped him there by exposing the voter fraud," Driver said. ``We beat him in Missouri a month ago. He couldn't collect enough signatures to get an initiative on the Missouri state ballot."

Driver said Connerly will fail in Arizona.

``We're going to turn what he was touting as his Super Tuesday into Super Lose-day."

The protesters said, if passed, the initiative would be a setback for equal rights in Arizona.

Mathew Whitaker, one of the protesters, cautioned people to know what they're signing when they sign petitions.

``Look at the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative closely to understand that what you are looking at is not necessarily a measure that has been put forth by people whose definition of civil rights is the same as yours," Whitaker said.

He said passing the iniative would be a mistake.

``You would be rolling back mechanisms, programs, procedures and policies that allow everyone regardless of race, regardless of gender, equal access to that which sustains us here in the state," Whitaker said.

The protesters suggested anyone who has signed the petitions to get their signature removed.

Supporters of the initiative need 230,047 to qualify for the November ballot.