Highlights
- Judge Adele Ponce ruled July 26 that Proposition 144 can appear as a single ballot measure in November.
- The measure bundles five election changes, including voter ID for mail ballots and ballot tabulation at polling places.
- Tempe City Councilman Randy Keating, who filed the challenge, says an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court is already pending.
- More than 80% of Arizona ballots are cast by mail, making the ID requirement the provision with the broadest practical reach.
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled last week that Arizona voters can be asked to decide on five sweeping changes to state election law in a single ballot measure, clearing Proposition 144 for the November ballot.
Judge Adele Ponce rejected a legal challenge brought by Tempe City Councilman Randy Keating, who argued the measure violates the Arizona Constitution by combining unrelated issues. Keating had pointed to court precedents requiring constitutional amendments to be sufficiently related to a common purpose to form a consistent and workable whole. Ponce concluded the provisions are "topically related" and "sufficiently interrelated," finding that each aims to improve election integrity and that addressing different aspects of election security does not prevent them from being topically related.
Proposition 144, a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers, would require all voters, including those voting by mail, to present identification before casting a ballot; enshrine in the Arizona Constitution that only U.S. citizens may vote; restrict foreign nationals from spending money to influence Arizona elections; allow ballots to be counted at individual polling places rather than transported to centralized tabulation centers; and affirm lawmakers' authority to pass future election laws.
The mail-ballot ID requirement carries the widest reach. More than 80% of Arizona ballots are cast by mail, a practice lawmakers approved in 1991 when they eliminated the requirement that voters show a specific reason to vote early. The measure does not specify how a mail voter would satisfy an identification requirement, a gap critics say could effectively end the practice.
The provision was crafted by Rep. Alexander Kolodin, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, who filed suit four years ago on behalf of the Arizona Republican Party seeking to ban voting by mail. Keating argued the package is designed to deceive voters, noting that the citizenship-only provision simply restates existing state law that voters approved in 2004. He said the bundled structure would bait voters into approving provisions that strip rights they currently hold.
Keating said that if the Arizona Supreme Court declines to remove the measure from the ballot, there will be a robust campaign to convince voters to defeat it.
An appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court has already been filed. The November election is the next scheduled decision point.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- azcapitoltimes.com retrieved 27/07/2026 18:47
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 27/07/2026 18:47. Every claim traces to a source.
