Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain ruled on the side of transparency and voter’s rights today when he kicked the “Top Two” primary initiative off the November ballot.
Save Our Vote filed a lawsuit two weeks ago against Top Two for violating the Arizona Constitution’s “single-subject” rule. This important rule is in place to protect the voters from ballot initiatives that attempt to overhaul multiple aspects of Arizona law that are unrelated.
In this case, while attempting to create a Top Two primary system, the court agreed with Save Our Vote that proponents of the initiative reached too far when they tried to also change aspects of Arizona law pertaining to state assistance to political parties.
In his decision, Judge Brain wrote “The proposed prohibition of funding [to political parties] is entirely different [from establishing a top two primary] and there is no good reason that a vote for or against that topic should be bundled with a vote on an open primary.”
You can read his decision in it’s entirety here: http://bit.ly/OZm4He
“Not only does Top Two severely limit voter choice, but as the court found, it is in direct violation of the Arizona Constitution,” said Mike Liburdi, legal counsel for Save Our Vote. “This decision can only be viewed as a major victory for Arizona voters.”
Proponents of overhauling Arizona’s elections have the option to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. Save Our Vote is committed to protecting voters from election schemes, and seeing this legal challenge through to the end.
