ARIZONA, USA — Supporters of Arizona’s new universal school voucher law are urging Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to declare the petition drive unsuccessful.
Dozens of activists held a rally at the Arizona State Capitol on Wednesday. Gov. Doug Ducey joined them to show his support.
“We are asking Secretary of State Hobbs to release the numbers and declare the referendum attempt failed,” said Christine Accurso, an activist and mother who supports universal vouchers.
Activists said they have kids with placeholders in private schools who are waiting to enroll but cannot until the law is declared in effect.
Hobbs: Office is 'on track' to complete review
A spokesperson for Hobbs tells 12News her team is “absolutely on track” to complete the review of the citizen referendum “on or before the 20-day window that the law allows.”
Noting a high level of interest in the issue, spokesperson Sophia Solis said the office is bound by law to complete the review process as outlined in Chapter 4 of its Initiative and Referendum Guide.
“It is disappointing that some elected leaders are intentionally misrepresenting this process to parents to create confusion and deliberately sow discord,” Solis said.
Hobbs provided an overview of the process in a Twitter thread for the public.
Save Our Schools expected to fall short on signatures
The organization, Save Our Schools Arizona, does not appear to be on track to achieve its goal of blocking the new Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) expansion.
Although Director Beth Lewis announced Friday they had turned in more than 141,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office, on Monday, Lewis acknowledged the organization submitted fewer signatures than originally advertised.
According to the Associated Press, observers inside the Secretary of State’s Office say Save Our Schools Arizona actually submitted 88,866 signatures.
Asked why there was such a discrepancy between Friday’s announcement and the actual totals, Lewis said her organization was basing its numbers on spreadsheets from eight different regional teams.
“There must have been duplicate counts. The last 48 hours, it was just ‘hair on fire' taking in petitions,” Lewis said. “There was no intent to mislead.”
Allegations of unethical actions
Voucher supporters also accuse Save Our Schools Arizona of playing loose with the rules during the signature gathering process.
The accusations include:
- Asking people to sign petitions more than once
- Leaving unsupervised petitions at locations without a circulator on-hand
- Verbally misrepresenting what voters were signing
“The voters in Arizona deserve integrity behind a referendum attempt,” Accurso said. “People were lied to about what they were signing, and that is not right.”
Accurso alleged she has video evidence of some of the allegations that may be used later for a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Lewis said there was no systemic effort to mislead voters.
“We spent many, many hours training our volunteers to do everything by the book,” Lewis said. “I was out in the field all summer long, and I never saw what these people are accusing us of. It’s ridiculous and disrespectful to parents and teachers that were out in the heat trying to save our public schools.”
Lewis acknowledged volunteers likely made mistakes because the effort involved so many people.
Allegations of “lies and fear tactics”
During the final weeks of the petition drive, activists on both sides accused their opponents of providing false information to potential signees and disrupting each other’s efforts. “Decline to sign” activists showed up at petition drive locations to communicate their opinion about the law with voters.
Lewis accused the activists of “screaming” at signature gatherers and not allowing them to communicate with voters.
Supporters of ESA’s took to social media to accuse Save Our Schools Arizona volunteers of intentionally misleading the public.
One voucher supporter posted clips on social media showing him talking to signature gatherers.
“Lies. Fear tactics. Politics. It’s bad,” activist Grant Botma wrote.
Asked about alleged misleading tactics by volunteers, Lewis said volunteers were trained to provide correct information and follow the law.
“Counter activists were following our volunteers, stocking them, harassing them, trying to coerce them into mistakes,” Lewis said. “Obviously, I don’t know of mistakes directly, but I can tell you an army of thousands of volunteers could have led to mistakes.”
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe today.