A lawsuit challenges the validity of thousands of petition signatures in an effort to keep Empowerment Scholarship Account reforms off the ballot this November.
On behalf of school voucher supporters, the Goldwater Institute is taking legal action against the Protect Education Accountability Now campaign, which submitted petitions earlier this month for the ESA reform ballot initiative.
According to the institute's amended complaint filed Tuesday, some petition circulators did not properly register, had false or incomplete contact information, and or were ineligible. The lawsuit claimed some circulators even had a disqualifying criminal conviction. If a circulator is ineligible, all the signatures they collected would be invalidated.
The lawsuit also said there are petition signers who failed to include all the required information and alleges duplicate signatures exist.
Olivia Fierro, a spokesperson for the Protect Education, Accountability Now campaign, said the company that handles the petition circulators conducts background checks.
"The Goldwater Institute and AZ Free Enterprise Club are playing games with the will of the voters and our taxpayer dollars," Fierro said. "This approach won’t work, and trying to exclude hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of this initiative shows a lack of respect for the integrity of the ballot initiative process."
If approved by voters, the Protect Education Act would prevent families with incomes exceeding $150,000 from receiving ESAs.
It would stop families from rolling over unspent money year-to-year, and it would require private schools that accept ESA money to background check employees and meet student testing requirements.
According to the campaign, 421,451 signatures were submitted, well above the required minimum of about 256,000 signatures to place the initiative on the ballot.
Both the Arizona Secretary of State's Office and county recorders review signatures to certify the initiative for the ballot.
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