Morales v. Archibald, 246 Ariz. 398

Summary

The Arizona Supreme Court held that an elector’s statutory right to challenge a recall petition under A.R.S. § 19-208.04 is limited to challenges concerning the number of certified signatures. It affirmed the injunction against a Phoenix City Council recall election because the petition sheets were not attached to a time-and-date-marked copy of the recall application as required by statute.

Holdings

1. A.R.S. § 19-208.04 authorizes an elector to challenge the number of signatures certified on a recall petition, including statutory grounds bearing on whether signatures should have been counted, but it does not create a broad private right of action to challenge every statutory requirement applicable to recall petitions.
2. Petition sheets must be attached to a copy of the complete, time-and-date-marked recall application for their signatures to be validly verified and counted.
3. Because none of the Committee's petition sheets was attached to the complete time-and-date-marked application, the Committee failed to comply with the statutory requirements and its signatures could not be certified; the recall election was therefore properly enjoined.

Questions Presented

1. Whether A.R.S. § 19-208.04 authorizes an elector to bring a broad private action challenging recall petitions for statutory noncompliance beyond the number of certified signatures.
2. Whether Morales could challenge the failure to attach a time-and-date-marked copy of the recall application to the petition sheets.
3. Whether petition sheets not attached to the time-and-date-marked recall application may be counted and certified for purposes of a recall election.
4. Whether the Committee's substantial-compliance and constitutional arguments required resolution.

Disposition

affirmed