Want to know why the Arizona Legislature is so afraid of Arizona voters? This is why

Want to know why Arizona’s political leaders are so afraid of Arizona’s voters?

Look no further than the initiatives that appear headed to the Nov. 8 ballot. (I say “appear” because the powers-that-be will spend the next month or two trying to knock them off.)

Look specifically at the proposals to undo some of the Legislature’s election “reforms” – the ones aimed at making it tougher for certain people to vote – and to shine a light on sources of campaign funding that the power set would just as soon leave in the dark.

Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions, exercising their constitutional right to go around the Legislature and make laws – or overturn them – at the ballot box.

This is Arizona, fighting back, and the Republicans who control this state don’t much like it. (I’ll tell you what they plan to do about it in a minute.)

Consider the Voters' Right to Know Act

Every election year, millions upon millions of dollars come flooding into the state to promote or attack various candidates and causes.

These groups have illuminating names like People for a Better Arizona or Citizens for Good Government. Names that tell you absolutely nothing about who they really are or why they really want you to vote a certain way.

For a decade, state leaders have stood by and allowed “dark money” to run like a river, proclaiming that fat-cats have a First Amendment right to secretly fund political campaigns. In fact, Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature passed laws to allow even more anonymous money to flow forth in an effort to persuade us to vote a certain way.

Roberts: Voters could finally end dark money attack ads

Ever wonder how Arizona Public Service got a $95 million rate hike rubber stamped by a friendly Corporation Commission? Or why Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature are so anxious to fund private prisons while state prison beds go unoccupied?

Ever wonder why certain people were given exclusive rights to run the sports book operations that are now depositing hundreds of millions of dollars into their pockets?

Nearly 400,000 voters signed petitions to put the Voters’ Right to Know Act on the November ballot.

Assuming the dark money crowd can’t find a court to toss it off the ballot (again), voters this fall will decide whether people and corporations who spend big money to try to buy this state ought to have to tell us who they are.

Consider the Arizona Fair Elections Act

This one proposes more than four dozen changes to election law – some of them aimed at broadening voter access and others to overturn recently enacted laws designed to make it more difficult to vote. Or to block future efforts to undermine our vote.

Among other things, this proposal would mandate automatic voter registration for adults who get a driver’s license and allow for same-day voter registration at the polls.

It would expand public funding of candidates and slash private contributions.

It would undo legislative “reforms” designed to make it harder for citizen initiatives to qualify for the ballot and easier for courts to knock them off.

No longer would occasional voters have to jump through added hoops to get early ballots, as the Legislature required when they eliminated the Permanent Early Voting List.

No longer could legislators plot to overthrow the results of presidential elections they don’t like or order election audits beyond those already required by law.

Or create new voter ID requirements for early ballots.

Basically, it’s wish list of policy proposals promoted by the perpetually-out-of-power Democratic Party.

I don’t know if it’ll pass, given that it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. But it’s worth noting that a whopping 475,290 voters signed a petition to put it on the ballot.

That’s twice what is needed to put this to a public vote.

Would you really vote to limit your own power?

That’s something for the Republicans who run this state to think about as they go about representing only a third of the state’s voters and to heck with everybody else.

Or they can just do what they usually do and work on a plan to make it more difficult for voters to go around them. Again, that is.

Every year, the Legislature devises new and improved ways to weaken our constitutional right to make laws at the ballot box. This year, they wanted to require a 60% supermajority to pass citizen-initiated laws rather than the simple majority that’s been required for the last 110 years.

Only there's a problem. They couldn’t do it on their own because our power to initiate laws is derived from the state constitution and only voters can change that. So they passed a bill – with a bare majority of the Legislature – and put it on the ballot.

Put another way: They’re now asking us to vote to limit our own power – a power given us by the founding fathers of this state.

Republican legislators say the 60% threshold is needed because initiatives, once passed, are now voter protected and thus difficult to change if there’s a problem. They've got a point, one that should perhaps prompt them to begin acting in the best interests of the entire state, thus eliminating the need for frustrated voters to resort to such initiatives.

Still, it's an idea worthy of consideration – right after our leaders apply the same 60% requirement to themselves.

Until then, who do they think they’re kidding?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Legislature is afraid of Arizona voters. This is why