Lawsuit challenges signatures for Arizona anti-ESA measure

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(The Center Square)- The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit against a ballot initiative seeking to regulate Arizona’s school choice program, alleging it did not submit enough valid signatures to appear on the November ballot.

In Arizona, a ballot initiative seeking to make changes to state law needs to have 255,949 valid signatures.

The Protect Education Act seeks to restrict the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account, including a household income cap of $150,000 and more oversight of ESA funds.

Jenna Bentley, the director of government affairs at the Goldwater Institute, told The Center Square Wednesday that the Goldwater Institute feels it has “evidence that shows” not enough qualified, valid signatures were submitted to appear on the ballot.

Olivia Fierro, communications manager for the Protect Education Act, said the ballot initiative was “facing another predictable challenge: legal action initiated by associates of Betsy DeVos to keep the measure, which, with the support of educators, parents, disability advocates, and ESA families, turned in 421,451 signatures of support to the Secretary of State’s office, off the ballot.”

“They’re doing this for one reason only: they know it will pass in November,” Fierro told The Center Square in a statement on Wednesday. 

“This is the latest in a series of attacks, first from out-of-state, billionaire-funded organizations like the American Federation for Children, and now from the Goldwater Institute, aimed at leaving Arizona’s ESA program, simply as it is, plagued by waste, fraud and abuse,” she added. DeVos is a former U.S. Secretary of Education known for supporting school choice and voucher programs.

In the lawsuit, the Goldwater Institute alleges the signatures the Protect Education Act collected were not “properly registered with the [Arizona] Secretary of State.”

The lawsuit says some people associated with the ballot initiative “failed to register” with the state before collecting signatures. It also claims some signature collectors did not provide all the required contact or personal information as required by state law. And the lawsuit alleges some of these people listed false addresses or incomplete phone numbers.

In addition, the lawsuit alleges certain signature collectors were legally ineligible to collect signatures because of a past criminal history. Some of the criminal convictions include attempted murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and transporting illegal aliens for profit, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also alleges Tyrone Crispell Jr., a signature collector, told at least one potential signer that he worked for the Arizona Secretary of State. Thus, the lawsuit seeks to have the signatures gathered by Crispell thrown out because he knowingly made a false statement while attempting to gather signatures.

Bentley said many Arizona residents contacted the Goldwater Institute, saying people collecting ballot signatures were misrepresenting the initiative to get people to sign it.

Regarding the signatures collected, the lawsuit alleges they include people who are not registered voters, duplicate and missing signatures, missing residential addresses and signers from a different county.

Victory Forward Solutions, which provided signature collection services for the ballot initiative, allegedly offered signature collectors “a guaranteed bonus payment of $2 per signature upon the conclusion of any litigation” regarding the Protect Education Act, the lawsuit says.

“Because the compensation terms for Victory Forward Solutions’ circulators were at least in part based on the number of signatures they collected, all signatures obtained by these circulators are invalid as a matter of law,” the lawsuit says.

Bentley said 75% of the signatures the ballot initiative submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office were gathered by paid circulators.

The Goldwater Institute is hoping to get a “quick resolution” on its legal case, Bentley said, noting the legal case will move fast because it is election-related.