Arizona Justices Nix|Secret Ballot Measure

(CN) – A proposed constitutional amendment protecting Arizonans’ right to cast secret ballots violates the state Constitution, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled.     The Arizona Legislature passed Proposition 108 and referred it to the voters in 2009. The measure would have amended the state Constitution to include the right to vote in secret for elective offices and union representation.     James McLaughlin and the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 99 complained that the proposal violated the “separate amendment” rule of the Arizona Constitution, which requires a separate vote for all constitutional amendments.     The Arizona Supreme Court agreed that Proposition 108 violates this rule, because it attempts to modify both election law and labor law.     “[P]ublic elections and labor representation historically have not been linked together in Arizona law,” Justice John Pelander wrote.     “Proposition 108’s provisions are not sufficiently interrelated to satisfy the separate amendment rule.”