Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi released the following statement on today’s ruling by Judge Moskowitz regarding the Prop 140 Signature Challenge:
“From the moment he was unanimously rebuked by the AZ Supreme Court for blocking the removal of nearly 40,000 duplicate signatures, Judge Moskowitz has been trying to find a way to place Prop 140 on the ballot, irrespective of whether it had enough signatures to qualify. Today he issued a ruling manufacturing that outcome, deciding that the statutory method for determining the number of valid signatures for ballot initiatives is now unconstitutional. He made this radical determination despite the fact that the statute Moskowitz invalidated is nearly 30 years old and was reviewed and upheld against a constitutional challenge by the AZ Supreme Court in 2022 (Mussi v Hobbs).
The bottom line is that after the removal of the duplicate signatures, Prop 140 lacks the required number of valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. The committee behind the measure was aware of this fact, which is why they obstructed and delayed the review of the duplicate signatures for over a month.
We are confident that after a careful review of the facts, ruling, and trial court record, the AZ Supreme Court will again overturn this outrageous ruling by Judge Moskowitz and enjoin Prop 140 from being tabulated.”
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Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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Only United States citizens should be voting in our elections. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement. But of course, it’s 2024, and the Left hasn’t instituted its open border policies under the Biden-Harris administration for nothing.
The fact is that U.S. citizens can’t go into France, Australia, or any other country throughout the world and vote in their elections. Why should citizens from other countries be allowed to vote in our elections?
While it’s certainly illegal for non-citizens to vote here, the law is only as good as the mechanism in place to make sure it’s followed. That’s why it is critical for the integrity of our nation’s elections that voters prove their citizenship prior to voting. And the SAVE Act is a much-needed remedy that would address this issue head on.
Sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy from Texas, who has certainly experienced firsthand the issues that arise from the current surge at the border, the SAVE Act would require individuals to provide documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) in order to vote in federal elections. It’s a constitutional solution to keep non-citizens from voting.
But given Congress’s propensity for inaction, states should not wait around to see if our federal lawmakers will pass the SAVE Act or another reasonable solution. Arizona has been a leader on this issue for years and has already enacted a comprehensive solution that every state should follow.
In 2022, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club authored HB 2492, which was passed by the legislature and signed by then-Governor Doug Ducey. This comprehensive voter integrity law implements a suite of reforms that ensures that non-U.S. citizens are stopped from voting in Arizona elections.
First, HB2492 mandates that Arizona election officials shall reject any state voter registration form that does not include documented proof of citizenship. If an election official accepts one of these applications, he or she is guilty of a class 5 felony. Just last month, this provision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and allowed to go into effect.
Second, the law requires that election officials check a multitude of databases to determine the citizenship status of an applicant that registers with a federal registration form and doesn’t provide proof of citizenship.Based on those database checks, if the election official finds the applicant in a database and confirms that the applicant is a U.S. citizen, the applicant would be properly registered to vote. However, if the election official finds that the applicant is not a U.S. citizen, the application would need to be rejected. The election official would then be required to inform the Attorney General and county attorney because the applicant lied on a voter registration form, which is a crime. Lastly, if election officials cannot find the applicant in any database, they are required to send a notice to the applicant requesting DPOC within 30 days.
Third, HB 2492 prohibits any person that fails to provide proof of citizenship from voting for president in the General Election. Arizona, like every other state, has the plenary power over the conduct of Presidential Elections. And this includes preventing anyone that is not a verified U.S. Citizen from voting for president.
And finally, only individuals that provide proof of citizenship when registering are eligible to vote by mail. There is no state or federal right to vote by mail and as recognized by Justice Alito in Brnovich v. DNC, “Arizona law generally makes it easy to vote.” And when the “totality of circumstances” is considered, HB2492 would not place a significant burden on voters by requiring DPOC to vote early by mail.
Stopping illegals from voting in our elections requires action at every level of government. We need Congress to pass the SAVE Act, and we need every state to take proactive measures to ensure only U.S. Citizens are voting in elections. For two decades, Arizona worked on this issue. Now HB 2492 serves as the roadmap for every state to protect their voter rolls and stop non-U.S. citizens from voting in our elections. Until the SAVE Act is passed, every state in the country should follow our lead with their own version now.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – In a major development with the signature challenge over Proposition 140, the special master reviewing the duplicate signatures determined that 99% of the 38,000 signatures reviewed were, in fact, duplicates. This determination from the court-ordered expert will now place Proposition 140 thousands of signatures under the constitutionally required signature threshold to qualify for the ballot.
Proposition 140 is seeking to enact a California-style election scheme built around ranked-choice voting and jungle primaries.
“As we knew all along, Prop 140 lacks the signatures required for this measure to even make it to the ballot in the first place, let alone be considered by voters in November,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Even though they knew about the illegitimacy of these duplicate signatures, the special interests behind this initiative attempted to run out the clock on this challenge through obstruction and delay. They were caught, and now we hope the court does the right thing and enjoin the measure from tabulation in the fall.”
With the removal of the duplicate signatures, Prop 140 fails to meet the minimum signature threshold by over 3,300 signatures, which is determined by a statutory calculation that has been in place for over 25 years. This calculation was reviewed and upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court in Mussi v. Hobbs (2022).
Of the nearly 40,000 duplicates that were included when the Prop 140 Committee submitted their signatures to the Secretary of State, around 250 people had signed five or more times. One individual had signed 15 times. All those signatures were included in the final tabulation by the Arizona Secretary of State and challenged in state courts.
Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the signature challenge lawsuit against Proposition 140, which was facing a potential deadline due to the printing of ballots, could continue to ensure that the nearly 40,000 duplicate signatures were examined and removed from the finally tally to determine if the measure had the constitutional minimum signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
The next hearing in the case is Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court.
See exhibit showing duplicates of people who signed 5 or more times here.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
Arizona voters should be able to have complete trust in their elected officials to conduct themselves honorably, ethically, and lawfully in every matter concerning our sacred elections.
Too bad Secretary of State Adrian Fontes never got the memo.
In the midst of firing off baseless attacks against our organization after a court ruled in our favor against his radical Elections Procedures Manual, Fontes found a new way to violate the ethics of his office…and maybe the law.
Last week, in an unexpected, politically motivated, and potentially unlawful use of taxpayer dollars, Fontes filed a brief at the Arizona Supreme Court in an effort to ensure that votes for Prop 140 are counted in the November General Election—regardless of its eventual legality.
Think about that for a moment. By filing this brief, Adrian Fontes—the top election official in our state—unequivocally signaled his position that 40,000 duplicate signatures should be ignored and counted in favor of passing Prop 140. In short, this means that for Fontes, the ends justify the means to ensure that Arizona adopts a California-style election scheme that includes ranked-choice voting and jungle primaries. But that shouldn’t come as much of surprise…because it’s exactly what he’s been working for.
For over a year, Secretary Fontes has been actively working with the Prop 140 campaign in order to secure its passage. And he’s not even trying to hide it. Fontes is currently listed as a “team member” on the Save Democracy AZ website, which is the nonprofit behind Prop 140. Certainly, his filing and work with this group—along with Open Primaries Inc.—severely compromise his impartiality in tabulating November’s elections results given this clear conflict of interest.
On top of that, the brief Fontes filed last week wasn’t even requested by the Arizona Supreme Court. Instead, the Secretary of State took it upon himself to sway the judicial process in favor of left-wing attempts to ignore the law about which ballot measures may be considered by voters. And in a not-so-ironic twist, Fontes’ filing at the Arizona Supreme Court showed incredible hypocrisy when compared to his filing at the Arizona Superior Court on the very same day in Kirkland v. Way. In that case, Fontes argued that his office should be ordered to disregard votes cast for an allegedly ineligible candidate, who is a Republican running for the state legislature. But this is the exact opposite argument of what he produced in his brief supporting Prop 140 at the Arizona Supreme Court!
This is not the behavior Arizonans should expect from our elections chief who is expected to be fair and impartial. But Fontes doesn’t care. He’d rather take a side in a controversial measure that would be potentially on the ballot and use taxpayer dollars to make the case for a California-style amendment that would fundamentally transform the way we vote and select our candidates for public office.
For Fontes—and for his allies on the Make Elections (Un) Fair Committee—it’s clear that “preserving democracy” means counting unlawful duplicate signatures. But this is not saving democracy. It’s trampling the will of the people and the laws that govern how elections should be executed.
That’s why our organization has called for an investigation from the Arizona Legislature and the offices of Attorney General Kris Mayes and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell into Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ overt political actions. The people of Arizona deserve to know whether taxpayer resources may have been deployed in support of the “Yes on Prop 140” campaign. And in addition, Fontes must recuse himself of any involvement in ballot tabulation related to initiatives in the November General Election due to his partisan shenanigans.
In the meantime, the state’s highest court was clear that the signature challenge against Prop 140—which faced a potential deadline due to the imminent printing of ballots—may continue in order to ensure that duplicate signatures are examined and removed from the final tally. And if those duplicate signatures in question are removed, the measure would lack the minimum number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot and an injunction would be issued prohibiting any votes from being counted for this measure.
That’s the law. That’s how our elections system should work. And if Adrian Fontes truly cared about “preserving our democracy,” that’s what he would be fighting for.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Last week, in an unexpected, politically motivated, and potentially unlawful use of taxpayer dollars, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes filed a brief in Smith v. Fontes at the Supreme Court of Arizona, attempting to ensure that votes for Proposition 140 are counted in the November General Election regardless of its eventual legality. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is standing for the hardworking and freedom-loving men and women around the Grand Canyon State by calling for an investigation into Fontes’ potential use of taxpayer funds in support of Prop 140, and for his recusal from any ballot tabulation related to initiatives in the upcoming election.
By filing his brief at the Arizona Supreme Court, Fontes unequivocally signaled his position that 40,000 duplicate signatures should be ignored and counted in favor of passing Proposition 140. In short, to Fontes, the ends justify the means to ensure that Arizona’s elections system can be operated like California’s radical system.
For over a year, Secretary Fontes has been actively working with the Prop 140 campaign in order to secure its passage. Fontes is currently listed as a “team member” on the Save Democracy AZ website, which is the nonprofit behind Proposition 140. Fontes’ filing and work with Save Democracy and also Open Primaries Inc. severely compromise his impartiality in tabulating November’s election results given his clear conflict of interest.
Furthermore, this brief from Fontes wasn’t even requested by the court, demonstrating a clear desire to sway the judicial process in favor of left-wing attempts to ignore the law about which ballot measures may be considered by voters.
“Secretary Fontes and his allies on the Make Elections (Un)Fair Committee are urging the court to count unlawful duplicate signatures in order to ‘preserve democracy,’” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Far from acting as a fair and impartial elections chief, Fontes has officially taken a side in a controversial measure that would be potentially on the ballot, showing Arizonans that he is using taxpayer dollars to make the case for a California-style amendment that would fundamentally transform the way we vote and select our candidates for public office. This is not saving democracy; this is trampling the will of the people and the laws that govern how elections should be executed.”
Mussi added, “We believe that a public investigation of the Secretary’s overt political actions is necessary, specifically to determine whether taxpayer resources may have been deployed in support of the Yes On Prop 140 campaign. In addition, Fontes must recuse himself of any involvement of ballot tabulation related to initiatives in the November General Election due to his partisan shenanigans here. Arizona voters must have complete trust in their officials to conduct themselves honorably, ethically, and lawfully in every matter concerning our sacred elections.”
Additionally, Secretary Fontes’ filing at the Arizona Supreme Court showed incredible hypocrisy when compared to his filing at the Arizona Superior Court on the very same day in Kirkland v. Way, where he argued that his office should be ordered to disregard votes cast for an allegedly ineligible candidate, who is a Republican running for the state legislature. This position at the Superior Court is exactly the opposite argument of what he produced in the Proposition 140 case for the Supreme Court.
The matter at the state’s high court is that the signature challenge lawsuit against Proposition 140, which faced a potential deadline due to the imminent printing of ballots, may continue in order to ensure that duplicate signatures are examined and removed from the final tally. If the duplicate signatures in question are removed, the measure would lack the minimum number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot. Prop 140 is seeking to enact a California-style election scheme built around ranked choice voting and jungle primaries.
Read the Secretary’s response urging the counting of duplicates here.
Read the response brief urging the Supreme Court to allow the review of the duplicates to continue here.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
PHOENIX, AZ – Today the Freedom Club PAC announced General Election endorsements for legislative offices in 2024.
Freedom Club PAC Chairman Scot Mussi stated, “It is a critical time in our country and in our state. Republicans at the legislature have preserved the safe, affordable, and free way of life we all cherish in Arizona. But that is under threat this election cycle. Katie Hobbs has pledged to spend millions to flip the Arizona legislature and turn our state into another California. It is more important than ever this election cycle for Arizonans to vote down ticket for Republicans who are now the only defense from a radical Leftist takeover that will usher in California policies that threaten to increase crime, crush our economy, and endanger our basic freedoms.”
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Mark Finchem – Senate
Shawnna Bolick – Senate
John Kavanagh – Senate
Selina Bliss – House
Ari Bradshaw – House
Joe Chaplik – House
Quang Nguyen – House
Alex Kolodin – House
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Carine Werner – Senate
Wendy Rogers – Senate
Roxana Holzapfel – Senate
Matt Gress – House
David Marshall – House
Caden Darrow – House
Pamela Carter – House
Walt Blackman – House
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Rob Scantlebury – Senate
David Farnsworth – Senate
JD Mesnard – Senate
Mary Ann Mendoza – House
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Ralph Heap – House
Julie Willoughby – House
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Warren Petersen – Senate
Jake Hoffman – Senate
TJ Shope – Senate
Laurin Hendrix – House
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Chris Lopez – House
Khyl Powell – House
Michael Way – House
Teresa Martinez – House
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Vince Leach – Senate
Gail Griffin – House
Michelle Altherr – Senate
Cory McGarr – House
Lupe Diaz – House
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Rachel Jones – House
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Tim Dunn – Senate
Kevin Payne – Senate
Frank Carroll – Senate
Michael Carbone – House
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Tony Rivero – House
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Janae Shamp – Senate
Leo Biasiucci – House
Steve Montenegro – House
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James Taylor – House
PAID FOR BY THE FREEDOM CLUB PAC, with 0% from out-of-state contributors. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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