court-appointed Special Master and retired Arizona Superior Court Judge Christopher Skelly delivered his report to the Maricopa County Superior Court revealing Prop 140’s 38,000 pairs of duplicate signatures.

Despite these findings calling into question the measure’s eligibility to appear on the state’s November ballot, Maricopa Judge Frank Moskowitz ruled on Sept. 19 that votes cast for the measure would count. As summarized by AZ Free News, the judge “claimed that the confirmation of duplicated, invalid signatures was ‘moot’” because the state had already begun printing ballots for the election and that the courts lacked statutory authority to issue such an order. //

“Perhaps the absence of such express authority in statute is because the Legislature never intended for initiative challenges to go past the ballot printing deadline.”

Plaintiffs appealed the decision, which was subsequently upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court on Friday. //

“The committee behind the measure was aware of the duplicates, yet they obstructed and delayed the review of the duplicate signatures for over a month,” Mussi said. //

“What the AZ Supreme Court just affirmed is that as long as you can conceal your cheating long enough, you can fraud your way onto the ballot,” Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona Chair Merissa Hamilton wrote on X.