AZ Marijuana Arizona Marijuana Info
The Smart and Safe Arizona Act, the ballot measure that could legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and older in Arizona, reported in March that it had enough signatures to qualify for this November’s ballot despite the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the campaign played it safe by collecting extra signatures until just before the deadline.
“That campaign has, in the last six weeks or so, caught fire at a grassroots level,” Stacey Pearson, a political consultant for Smart and Safe, told AZCentral.
Pearson told AZmarijuana.com that Smart and Safe will be filing “420,000 signatures with the Secretary of State” at 2pm on July 1.
Initiatives seeking to get onto the ballot must gather at least 237,645 signatures from voters but typically collect more because opponents are likely to challenge the validity of the signatures in court.
“We knew that we could grind this out,” Pearson said about campaigning during the pandemic. “You could have somebody posted up in front of a Safeway and get a signature or so an hour. What we didn’t expect is people asking us to come to their door.”
The campaign is expecting opponents to challenge the initiative in court, so it could be a few more months before a judge determines if the initiative will be on this November’s ballots.
View the Smart and Safe Arizona Act.
