Liane Breckling v. Arturo Hernandez

• Court: Arizona Supreme Court
• Decided: May 7, 2024
• Docket: CV-24-0087-AP/EL
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

SUPREME COURT OF ARIZONA

LIANE BRECKLING, ) Arizona Supreme Court ) No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL Plaintiff/Appellant, ) ) Maricopa County v. ) Superior Court ) No. CV2024-008720 ARTURO HERNANDEZ, et al., ) ) Defendants/Appellees. ) FILED 05/07/2024 ) __________________________________)

DECISION ORDER

On April 29, 2024, Appellant/Plaintiff/Challenger Breckling

filed a timely Notice of Appeal. On April 30, 2024, Cochise County

filed a “Notice of Appearance and Notice of Cochise County’s Ballot

Printing Deadline” advising the Court of the need to decide this

matter no later than May 7, 2024. The parties agreed to an expedited

stipulated briefing schedule and submitted simultaneous briefs. Upon

consideration of the briefs filed by Challenger and by

Appellee/Defendant Candidate Hernandez, along with the record in this

matter, a panel, consisting of Justices Bolick, Montgomery, Beene and

King finds as follows.

On April 25, 2024, the trial court conducted a trial in this

expedited election challenge. The parties have stipulated that

pertinent to the appeal, two circulators—Humphries and Thompson—did

not register as circulators for candidate Hernandez but did register

for other candidates. Challenger contends that these circulators’

signatures must be stricken because the circulators did not comply Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL Page 2 of 5

with the statutory registration requirements of A.R.S. §§ 16-

315(D)(“Circulators who are not residents of this state must be

registered as circulators with the Secretary of State before

circulating petitions . . . the Secretary of State shall establish in

the instructions and procedures manual issued pursuant to § 16-452 a

procedure for registering circulators and receiving service of

process.”) and 16-321(D) (requiring that a circulator who is not a

resident of this state “shall register as a circulator with the

secretary of state”).

The Election Procedures Manual (“EPM”) and Secretary’s portal

and training guide direct registering out-of-state circulators to

provide certain identifying information including name, telephone

number, email address, and address for service of process.

Additionally, “[o]nce a circulator is properly registered, the

circulator must select in the Circulator Portal the petition(s) they

will circulate (by serial number and/or candidate name.)” EPM Chapter

6 Sec. II (C).

With respect to the statutory requirements for registration of

out-of-state nomination petition circulators, the trial court

observed:

A.R.S. § 16-315(D) provides that non-resident circulators must register. The statute does not require that non- resident circulators register for a specific candidate. In other contexts, the Legislature has required discrete registrations for specific petition issues. See A.R.S. § 19-118(A); Leibsohn v. Hobbs, 254 Ariz. 1, 6-7, ¶ 20 (2022) Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL Page 3 of 5

(reviewing statewide initiative and referendum petitions). The requirements for candidate petitions [are] different than for ballot measures. See Powers v. Carpenter, 203 Ariz. 116, 118, ¶ 10 (2002) (refusing to apply statute governing ballot measure petitions to candidate nomination petitions); Morales v. Archibald, 246 Ariz. 398, 401, ¶ 12 (2019) (declining to “conflate[] the process for recalls with those for initiatives and referenda”).

As for the role of the EPM, the trial court noted:

The Legislature has authorized the Secretary to “establish . . . a procedure for registering circulators” through the Elections Procedures Manual (“EPM”), see A.R.S. § 16- 315(D). The EPM does not expressly instruct that separate, per-candidate registrations are a prerequisite to the associated signatures’ substantive validity. See EPM Chapter 6, sec. 2 subsec. (C). Even if that were true, the statute does not contain a requirement that circulators register for a particular candidate. Cf. Leach v. Hobbs, 250 Ariz. 572, 576, ¶¶ 20–21 (2021) (EPM’s creation of a de-registration process for ballot measure circulators could not affect the circulators’ statutory responsibilities or the legal sufficiency of underlying signatures). The EPM confirms that circulators who are not residents of Arizona must register with the Secretary of State “prior to circulating: . . . a candidate petition in any Arizona jurisdiction (statewide, county, city, or town).” See EPM Chapter 6, sec. 2 subsec. (B) (emphasis added). Failure to do so invalidates the signatures collected by the circulator prior to registration. Here, Plaintiff has not provided evidence that either Mr. Humphries or Mr. Thompson circulated any petitions before registering.

We concur in the trial court’s assessment of A.R.S. § 16-315(D)

and the EPM. Accordingly, Humphries and Thompson complied with the

requirements for the registration of out-of-state circulators and

thus there is no need to address whether they “substantially

complied.” See e.g., Feldmeier v. Watson, 211 Ariz. 444, 447 ¶ 14 Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL Page 4 of 5

(2005) (discussing “the nature of . . . statutory requirements, the

extent to which the petitions differ from the requirements, and the

purpose of the requirements” in determining whether initiative

petitions substantially complied with a statute). Consequently,

Objection No. 11 provides no basis for invalidating signatures.

IT IS ORDERED affirming the trial court decision and directing

that the counties include candidate Arturo Hernandez on the ballot.

DATED this 7th day of May, 2024.

_______/s/_________________ CLINT BOLICK Justice Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL Page 5 of 5

TO: Brian M McIntyre Roy Herrera Daniel A Arellano Jillian Andrews Austin T Marshall Elisabeth C Frost Omeed Alerasool Kory A Langhofer Thomas J Basile Kara Karlson Karen J Hartman-Tellez Kyle R Cummings Celeste M Robertson Christine Roberts Paul Correa Rose Winkeler Jeff Dalton Jean Anne Roof Gary Griffith Scott Adams Rachel F Shackelford Joseph Eugene La Rue Jack O'Connor Rosa Aguilar Ryan Henry Esplin Jason Mitchell Jason S Moore Daniel S Jurkowitz Ellen Ridge Brown Javier Adalberto Gherna Craig C Cameron Scott Matthew Johnson Jim Mitchell Ian Daranyi Kimberly J Hunley William Moran Robert F May Thomas M Stoxen Michael J Gordon William J Kerekes Jessica Holzer Hon Danielle J Viola Hon Jeff Fine Alberto Rodriguez