Press release via email:

The Arizona Public Integrity Alliance and four Maricopa County voters have successfully challenged an Arizona law governing the number of signatures statewide political candidates must obtain to appear on the ballot. This morning the government stipulated to the unconstitutionality of the challenged provision, and the Arizona Secretary of State agreed not to enforce the provision going forward. This result guarantees that, in all future elections, the petition signatures of Arizona voters will be given equal weight.

The lawsuit alleged that Arizona Revised Statutes § 16-322(A)(1), which requires candidates for statewide office in Arizona to obtain nomination petition signatures from “at least one-half of one percent of the voter registration of the party of the candidate in at least three counties in the state,” was unconstitutional. After the preliminary injunction phase of the case, the government agreed that the ballot access statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by impermissibly diluting the value of signatures from citizens in more populous counties and increasing the value of signatures from citizens in less populous counties.