Arizona voters approve Republican measures to restrict ballot initiatives

Two Republican ballot measures that will restrict how citizens can get their own priorities on the ballot in the future were approved by voters in Arizona, while one measure to institute stricter voter ID requirements failed.

Groups planning to run initiatives will now need those measures to focus on a single subject. For measures that seek to increase taxes, they will now need to get a 60% supermajority of votes for approval. The tax increase measure passed narrowly, with 50.7% in favor, while the single subject question received 55% of the vote.

The Republican-controlled state legislature, which sent questions to the ballot on eight topics this year, from in-state tuition for undocumented students to tax increases to fund rural fire districts.

The new restrictions will be in place for the 2024 election, where abortion rights advocates are eyeing a potential ballot measure to enshrine access to abortion. The initiatives come after years of restrictions from the legislature that have made the process more costly and difficult.

As for single subjects, most measures cross various parts of state law to ensure they are enacted completely, so initiative users are not sure how courts will construe how a single-subject rule applies to them.

The voter ID measure, which had the backing of the Arizona Republican party, narrowly failed, coming in with about 49.6% of the vote. It would have required additional information from voters on mail-in ballots, including a date of birth and an ID number, and eliminated an option for in-person voters to prove their identity and address using documents like utility bills and bank statements.

Opponents to the measure warned that the additional requirements could disenfranchise voters and expose their personal information to potential identity theft, while proponents said the voter ID law would make voting by mail, the main way Arizonans vote, more secure.