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 on Tuesday sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes for approving the name change.
"At this late in the game, there's no procedure for this party to change its name, and so the secretary made a mistake here," Tom Collins, the commission’s executive director, told ABC15.
In addition to questioning the legality of the name change, the nonpartisan panel 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,” Collins said. “That's real confusion.”
The name change took effect Dec. 1.
Arizona Independent Party points to signature requirements
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.”
Anthony Ramirez, an attorney representing two Arizona Independent Party candidates, Michael Zepeda and Stephen Neil, told ABC15 his clients are preparing legal action in federal court against the Clean Elections Commission.
"What they've done is open up, really walked into, a firestorm that has bigger implications than this naming issue," he said.
Collins said the signature requirements for getting on the ballot are a separate issue, pointing out that they're set by the Legislature, not the commission,
"That is something they should take up with the Legislature or take up with the voters themselves [through] the initiative process," he said.
Clean Elections says name change could confuse voters
The Clean Elections Commission asked 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.
The Clean Elections Commission voted on Friday to 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 before the meeting.
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.
