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Stories Posted on July 2, 2008
Immigration Initiatives Don't Make Ballot
Category: Immigration · State: Arizona · Source: Arizona Republic
Two voter initiatives designed to toughen Arizona illegal-immigration laws will not appear on the November ballot, the chairman of the campaigns told supporters late Tuesday night. Don Goldwater, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate, wrote in an e-mail that initiative campaigns working to strengthen the state's employer-sanctions law and require police officers to enforce immigration law each failed to collect the 153,365 petition signatures required to put the proposed measures before voters on Nov. 4.Both Goldwater and state Rep. Russell Peace, the Republican sponsor of last year's employer-sanctions legislation, launched the initiative drives in March 2007. But they lacked the financial support needed to hire paid signature gatherers. "In the end some would look at this as a defeat," Goldwater wrote. "I refuse to overlook our great victories and accomplishments and neither should anyone else."