PHOENIX — A battle is brewing over the name of Arizona’s newest political party, after the No Labels Party rebranded to the Arizona Independent Party.
Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections Commission is questioning the legality of the name change and says it could confuse voters.
“What this means is that there will be a party that people will think is the same as being an independent,” said Tom Collins, the commission’s executive director. “That's real confusion.”
The name change will take effect on December 1.
The Arizona Independent Party’s chair, former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, told ABC15 he doesn’t think the name is confusing. The change is aimed at making it easier for independent candidates to run for office, he said.
“They've given special privileges to parties,” he said. “Parties have the ability to do a variety of things, but one of them is, it levels the playing field in terms of how many signatures people have to get.”
Democrats and Republicans only need to get 6,000 signatures – far fewer than independents, Johnson said.
“If you run as an independent or unaffiliated voter, you have to get 45,000,” he said. “Now, that's intentional. They don't want unaffiliated or independent voters to be able to run for office, and in fact, none do.”
The Clean Elections Commission asked Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who approved the name change back in October, to reverse his decision.
But Fontes is holding firm on his decision, telling ABC15 he followed state law.
“At this time, our office is working with counties, the Governor’s Office, and Attorney General‘s office to determine how to implement the change from an administrative standpoint,” Fontes’ office said in a statement.
His office said it is working on how to change the state’s online voter registration system and paper forms “to make sure there’s no confusion” and other logistical issues.
Clean Elections Commission could sue
The Clean Elections Commission is meeting on Friday to determine if it will take legal action.
“We need to make sure that those voters who don't want to be in a party don't get confused and accidentally get affiliated with a party,” Collins said.
He told ABC15 that people registering to vote online could be confused if they see “Arizona Independent Party” in the drop-down menu.
"That is going to, without some clarification, cause a number of people to think, ‘I'm an independent. That's what I want," Collins said.
Johnson predicted most of Arizona’s independent voters won’t register with his party, adding that people will still have the “no party preference” option.
“What we're trying to do is to give them a choice,” he said. “I don't think that the choice is a bad choice. I don't think it's a confusing choice.”
Johnson said AIP has about 25 candidates interested in running, and at least five of them will fight any litigation brought against the name change.
“The system has been completely rigged against them, and we're doing our best to try to change that,” he said.
