Effort underway to significantly change elections in Arizona

One advocacy group’s answer to the influence of big money in state politics is to make every registered voter a small-dollar donor.

Arizonans for Fair Elections launched a ballot initiative Wednesday that proposes to lower the state's campaign contribution limits and set up a system during election seasons for every voter to get vouchers from the state for up to $50 that they could then give to the candidates of their choice.

Supporters say the goal is to flood elections with small donations, dilute the influence of big donors and give candidates more incentive to appeal directly to the public rather than wealthy patrons.

"People all over Arizona of all political stripes feel like their voices don't have enough impact at the state Capitol and wealthy interests are running the show," said Joel Edman, executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network, a left-leaning group that is backing the measure.

But this model of publicly financing campaigns, which has already been adopted at the local level in Seattle, is just one piece of the sprawling proposed ballot measure that would also allow same-day and automatic voter registration while tightening the limits on political donations and restricting lobbying.

What would the measure do?

Arizonans for Fair Elections expects to begin collecting signatures to get on the 2020 ballot sometime in December. It will need 237,645 signatures from registered Arizona voters to qualify.

Dubbed the Fair Elections Act, a draft of the proposed ballot initiative totaled nearly 21,000 words. It would: 

• Allow voters to register at the polls on Election Day.
• Create a system to automatically register every eligible voter who has presented proof of citizenship while obtaining a driver’s license.
• Extend in-person early voting through the Monday before Election Day.
• Lower the campaign donation limits for statewide, legislative and local candidates.
• Increase the amount of public financing available for candidates participating in the Clean Elections Commission system.
• Create a system to issue vouchers worth at most $50 to every registered voter. Voters could then donate the vouchers to candidates of their choice.
• Allow voters to send mail-in ballots through Election Day, instead of requiring ballots arrive no later than Election Day.
• Ban lobbyists from giving lawmakers gifts such as trips or food and drinks worth more than $20.
• Expand the state’s law that prohibits legislators or senior government officials from participating in decisions in which they have a conflict of interest.
• Ban legislators from lobbying for two years after leaving office, instead of one year.

"You got to address a whole lot of problems at once," Edman said. "It's not just about curtailing the influence of big money. It's about bringing people into the political system and making it easier to register and vote whether by mail, early or in person on election day."

Funding from taxes, tax credit

Under state's existing Citizens Clean Elections system, candidates can get funding from the state if they collect a pile of $5 contributions and agree to abide by lower donation limits.

If voters approve the new ballot measure, the existing Citizens Clean Election Commission would manage the new voucher program.

The proposal would raise the minimum corporate income taxes to pay for the campaign donation vouchers.

Under current law, companies are required to pay $50 or 4.9% of qualifying income — whichever is greater.

The ballot measure proposes to raise that minimum tax of $50 to $150 in 2021. The additional $100 would go to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees would be exempt from the increase.

The measure would also reinstate an option for taxpayers to get a tax credit for donating to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission when filing their annual return, an incentive that lawmakers abolished in 2012.

'30-page heap of flaming poo'

The proposal would bring to Arizona a series of election policies that have become priorities for left-leaning groups around the country, making it a sure target for conservatives.

For example, critics have argued same-day voter registration could make elections more susceptible to fraud. And election officials elsewhere have argued that such measures would require more staff and funding to implement properly.

But same-day registration has been implemented in some states governed by Republicans, such as Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.

Aryhanna Meza, a student at Arizona State University and supporter of the measure, said she believes it would make the voting process more accessible to busy families.

"My family and many Arizona families that work minimum wage jobs don’t have the time to register to vote, or this task is a very difficult and tedious thing because it’s not a priority in their daily lives when they’re working maybe two to three jobs," said Meza, whose mother and brother work in packaging facilities and whose father is a full-time Uber driver.

Gov. Doug Ducey said he generally supports improving and reforming Arizona's election system.

"But whenever we've tried to limit these things in the past, we see that there's some unintended consequence," he said. "I'm on the side of freedom. I think that people should be able to invest in ideas and principles that they believe in."

House Speaker Pro Tempore T.J. Shope, a Republican from Coolidge, bluntly called the proposal "pretty much a 30 page heap of flaming poo" in a post on Twitter.

Lowering campaign contribution limits could also run into opposition from critics who argue limiting donations will only lead contributors to set up so-called dark money groups or Super PACs.

Such groups do not have to disclose their donors, making it impossible for the public to know who might be funding certain candidates or issues. They are already commonly being used in Arizona.

Ironically, Edman did not rule out that Arizonans for Fair Elections might accept dark money donations during the campaign.

One of several ideas

The sprawling measure may get lost amid several other voting-related initiatives vying for a spot on the ballot next year. All the measures are still in the midst of collecting the signatures required to qualify for the ballot.

A separate proposed ballot measure would institute automatic voter registration.

Another proposed measure would make it easier for groups to get initiatives on the ballot and toughen the state’s conflict of interest laws.

Meanwhile, former Attorney General Terry Goddard is spearheading the Outlaw Dirty Money campaign to pass a proposed ballot initiative that would require so-called dark money groups disclose their donors when making big expenditures, like buying attack ads.

Outlaw Dirty Money backers tried, and failed, to get that measure on the 2018 ballot.

Some believe 2020 might be a better opportunity than past years to win voters' approval for such a measure.

The presidential election is expected to drive high turnout at the polls and opponents may be playing Whack-a-Mole to stop similar measures in Arizona, potentially stretching resources thin for any "vote no" campaign.

SUBSCRIBERS:Why Trump allies are targeting 142,000 Arizonans to register to vote ahead of 2020

Would you support this ballot measure? Contact Andrew Oxford at andrew.oxford@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter at @andrewboxford.