PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court won’t order Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to recraft his description of a ballot measure that, if approved, would make some major changes in state election practices.
In a divided opinion Wednesday, Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said the language prepared by Fontes, which will go on every ballot, “is not false or clearly misleading.” Timmer said that the Arizona law that requires such explanations gives the secretary of state, along with the attorney general, broad discretion in determining what to put in the description and what to leave out.
But even if it did not, Timmer, joined by three other justices, said it doesn’t matter. She said supporters of Proposition 144 who filed suit are not personally and immediately harmed by the secretary’s decision. And that, she said, means they lack standing in the first place to seek an order of mandamus — essentially a court directive order to compel Fontes to change the wording.
