Thread: SB 1070 foes seek 155,000 signatures to put repeal on ballot

SB 1070 foes seek 155,000 signatures to put repeal on ballot
StoryComments (3)


Moira Carney, treasurer of Compassion for All, explains Monday how her all-volunteer group hopes to gather more than 155,000 valid signatures by July 1 to put a measure on the November ballot, effectively repealing the state's new immigration law. Carney conceded getting that many petitions in that short a time is unprecedented but said she believes voters will sign once they understand the law.

.Posted: Monday, June 7, 2010 5:36 pm | Updated: 5:43 pm, Mon Jun 7, 2010.

Howard Fischer

Admitting it's never been done before, foes of the state's new immigration law hope to gather close to 155,000 signatures to put the issue to voters.

And they need to do it in less than four weeks - and with only volunteers and virtually no cash at all.

The group, Compassion for All, seeks to effectively repeal SB 1070. That law, set to take effect July 29, will require police to check the immigration status of those they stop if they reasonably suspect the person is in the country illegally and makes being an illegal immigrant a state crime.

It would take just 76,682 valid signatures to put the law on "hold" until the November election. And backers would have until July 28.

But the danger in that is that if voters ratify the measure anyway, it becomes a permanent part of state law that could be repealed only by taking the issue back to the ballot.

This plan seeks to effectively repeal it with a new version of the law, a plan whose potential defeat in November would set no precedent.

To do that, though, backers need 153,365 valid signatures. With the normal error rate, that means they need to turn in closer to 200,000.

More to the point, they need them by July 1.

With only a few thousand now in hand, Moira Carney acknowledged Monday meeting that goal is unprecedented.

"But we are fighting an unprecedented situation where our legislature has chosen to adopt policies geared at removing from our midst 500,000 of our fellow human beings, disrupting the lives of countless families, ruining our economy and making our state the subject of boycotts and international ridicule," she said at a press conference at the Capitol.

Carney, treasurer of the group, said going this route has another advantage: It allows backers to not only effectively repeal SB 1070 but also to ask voters to block legislators from passing any immigration-related legislation for the next three years.

That is aimed at the possibility lawmakers, as their next move, might try to deny birth certificates to the children of illegal immigrants that are born in this country.

Courts have concluded that anyone born in the United States is a citizen, regardless of the status of the parents. But Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, the architect of this new law and similar measures, has said he wants to mount a legal challenge to that in hopes of getting the courts to change their position.

The petition drive originally began late last month when the Rev. John Auther, a Phoenix Catholic priest, filed the necessary legal papers. Since that time Auther has stepped away from the fight.


http://eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/ar ... um=twitter

What, 155k illegals signing this crap, and many of them are in Messedupico?

And the diplomats here to run all their chop shops(consulars?) to vote as well?

The invasion is in full steam patriots!

When they start checking signatures with E Verify?

Admitting it's never been done before, foes of the state's new immigration law hope to gather close to 155,000 signatures to put the issue to voters.

Yup, go ahead, stupid, put it on the ballot. Seventy percent of the Arizona people have already spoken.

let me see 155,000 versus the 70 percent of arizonans who favor and support the bill!??!

I wonder what side will really win?

Now we know what the AZ chapter of ACORN is doing. Filling out petitions for the deceased and Micky Mouse.

Dixie