No Voter-Proposed Laws Make Ballot This Year

Published: Thursday, July 3, 2014 - 10:24am

For the first time in more than 30 years, it appears Arizonans will face no voter-proposed laws on the November ballot. 

A group wanting to require the labeling of genetically modified foods is admitting it will not get the needed 172,000 petition signatures by Thursday's 5 p.m. deadline. 

Other petition drives — to limit city budgets, legalize same-sex marriage and bar the state from making existing highways toll roads — have also been abandoned.

Pollster Earl de Berge says he can only speculate on the reasons voters have been unsuccessful this year.

“I don't know the reason for it unless the people that are putting up the big bucks for those kind of petition drives and then the campaigns that follow have become discouraged by the failure of a lot of those items at the ballot box," de Berge said.

There will be a pair of measures on the ballot, both proposed by state lawmakers.  One challenges federal authority in Arizona.  The other gives terminally ill patients access to unapproved drugs.  And, a state commission is proposing a measure that would give lawmakers an 11-thousand dollar a year pay increase.