Highlights
- Judge David McDowell tossed thousands of Protect Education Act signatures from more than 110 circulators, leaving ballot eligibility unresolved.
- Disqualifying 24,369 duplicate signatures could drop the initiative roughly 6,300 signatures short of the required threshold.
- Arizona's ballot printing deadline is Aug. 20, and an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court is expected regardless of outcome.
- Results from Maricopa County and Apache County signature reviews are still pending and will determine whether Proposition 212 qualifies.
Proposition 212, the school voucher reform initiative known as the Protect Education Act, may not appear on Arizona's November general election ballot after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David McDowell issued an expedited ruling Thursday that tossed thousands of signatures and sided with plaintiffs on the double-counting question.
The measure initially collected more than 421,000 signatures, exceeding the 255,949 required. A review from the Secretary of State's Office reduced the total to 389,376, from which Arizona's counties would conduct a random sampling to determine a signature validity rate. That number fell further in court after plaintiffs, Empowerment Scholarship Account advocates, challenged the qualifications of circulators on grounds including clerical errors in addresses and phone numbers, and failure to have civil rights restored following felony convictions. Plaintiffs challenged signatures collected by more than 110 circulators.
The pivotal issue is duplicate signatures. Arizona law requires all but one instance of a duplicate signature to be disqualified. That would remove another 24,369 signatures. McDowell rejected arguments by Protect Education Act attorneys that challenges to county recorder criteria already account for duplicates and that applying the disqualification separately constitutes double-counting.
"The court agrees that it is conceivable that a double count could occur, but the court cannot make a decision based upon a hypothetical double counting of duplicate signatures," McDowell wrote.
McDowell acknowledged he could not determine at the time of his ruling whether the measure qualifies, because not all counties have completed their review of the secretary's random sample and a validity rate has not yet been calculated. Attorney Kory Langhofer, representing the plaintiffs, said Thursday night that results from Maricopa County and Apache County remain outstanding. If those counties report a validity rate similar to the current average from the other 13 Arizona counties, the Protect Education Act would fall short by about 6,300 signatures, Langhofer said.
Will this go to the Arizona Supreme Court?
Langhofer said the case will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court once counties produce a validity rate. The state's ballot printing deadline is Aug. 20, and the case is being expedited to allow for a potential appeal before that date.
The ruling was reported by Arizona Capitol Times and corroborated by 12News and KTAR. Maricopa and Apache county signature reviews are the final variable; results are expected before the Aug. 20 printing deadline.
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 14/08/2026 18:45
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 14/08/2026 18:45. Every claim traces to a source.
