Candidates for state legislature in Arizona finally know how many signatures they need to collect from voters in their district, in order to qualify for the ballot. Or do they?
The window to file signatures and qualify for the ballot opens in less than five weeks, and closes roughly one month later. Which is why candidates have been anxiously awaiting the Secretary of State’s official requirement numbers. According to an email sent to legislative candidates, the new numbers for the 2022 legislative districts were calculated and posted on the AZSOS website.
However, it wasn’t long before candidates were complaining that the numbers looked off, and other politicos agreed.
Maybe it's just me, but the new signature requirements to run for AZ legislature from the AZSOS seem really off. #KatieHobbs' office says they apply to the 2022 districts, but they look like 2020 district numbers… They're based on registration numbers, so these can't be right.
— Constantin Querard (@CQuerard) February 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/CQuerard/status/1488700482352787458?s=20&t=Of6Gabzk_9lCU91QRy7IfQ
New Democrat-dominated districts like LD23 require 688 valid signatures for the Republican candidate and only 516 for the Democratic candidate – something that should not happen since the signature requirements are based on voter registration.
Simply put, if you have more D's than R's in a district, the D will need more signatures to get on the ballot than the R, and vice versa. That isn't happening on this list. The IRC has registration numbers, so no reason AZSOS can't get really close with their requirement.
— Constantin Querard (@CQuerard) February 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/CQuerard/status/1488702732349358081?s=20&t=Of6Gabzk_9lCU91QRy7IfQ
“It is crazy,” said one Southern Arizona candidate who alerted the Arizona Daily Independent to the problem, “I’m in a lopsided district with way more Democrats than Republicans, and they want me to get 100 or 150 more signatures than the Democrats have to get?”
Speculation is that the list is actually for the 2020 districts and will be updated for 2022 later, but both the Secretary of State’s website and the email they sent to candidates asserts that these are the numbers for the 2022 election districts.
For some it’s a blessing, because the numbers are well below what they thought they would be required to get. For others it’s a curse, because the numbers are so far above what was expected. But for now, candidates are chasing the signature count laid out by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, not knowing if it is accurate or not.