ACLJ Fights To Defend Election Integrity and Prevent Fraudulent Pro-Abortion Constitutional Amendment From Being on the Arizona Ballot

A new petition calling for abortion to be added to the state constitution will soon be submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State, and our client, Arizona Right to Life, unearthed major election fraud surrounding this petition to get the abortion amendment on the ballot. We’re working with our client to protect election integrity and prevent this fraudulent abortion amendment from being on the ballot.

Arizona law allows individuals – in this case, the abortion lobby – to submit a constitutional amendment to the people as a ballot initiative. However, Arizonans must strictly comply with the processes enumerated under state law to do so. These processes include a minimum signature requirement of at least 15 percent of the total votes for all candidates for Governor during the previous general election cycle. This requirement means that those who are gathering signatures for this amendment must have gathered over 383,000 true Arizonan signatures to put this measure on the ballot.

Specific requirements must be met for signatures. Signatories must be qualified electors under Arizona law, for example. Importantly, petition signature fraud is committed when a circulator employs “any fraudulent means, method, trick, device or artifice to obtain signatures on a petition.”  Further, ballot petitions must not misrepresent the nature of the constitutional amendment they create. The court will “invalidate the petition if ‘it is fraudulent or creates a significant danger of confusion or unfairness.”’ Molera v. Reagan, 428 P.3d 490, 494 (Ariz. 2018) (quoting Save Our Vote v. Bennett, 291 P.3d 342, 349 (Ariz. 2013)).

However, Arizona’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow abortion “before the point in pregnancy when a health care provider determines that the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus without extraordinary medical measures unless justified by a compelling governmental interest . . . that is achieved by least restrictive means.” That point is defined as fetal viability in the proposed language and is the standard set.

The petition also states that abortion is allowed “after that point [viability as defined in the proposed language] in pregnancy if a health care provider determines an abortion is necessary to protect the life or the physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.” This exception for the mental health of the mother would widely open the door to abortion up to birth; such a definition is so broadly defined that almost nothing is prohibited. Accordingly, this abortion measure is inherently misleading; it purports to claim that abortion will be barred after viability, but in reality, it protects abortion up to birth. Thus, any petition signatures gathered using this false and misleading narrative of the amendment itself would be fraudulently obtained.

Under Arizona law, anyone may challenge the validity and sufficiency of an initiative or referendum. Such a challenge requires evidence that signatures were obtained fraudulently, not just that there are some mistakes or irregularities in the signatures. To invalidate the signatures that an individual collected, a challenger must prove that those signatures were gathered through fraud and misrepresentation.

Consequently, Arizona Right to Life has collected extensive documentation of fraudulent activity being used to gather support for this abortion petition. Teams of volunteers have confirmed that signatures were gathered in an improper fashion that violated state law. 

Arizona law prohibits election fraud. By failing to properly verify signatures, misrepresenting the nature of this abortion amendment, and in at least one case, fraudulently adding signatures, these petition circulators have violated the law in a pattern of fraud that cannot be allowed to stand.

We are sounding the alarm on the fraudulent signatures for a constitutional amendment that threatens the unborn in Arizona. Stand with us as we defend the right to life.