How to have your say on hot-button Arizona ballot measures

School vouchers? 

The firing squad as an acceptable method of execution?

All these issues and more may be on Arizona's November ballot.

And for $75, you can share your thoughts about them with pretty much everyone registered to vote.

That's all it takes to get a 300-word argument in a ballot pamphlet that's going to be mailed to about 4 million registered Arizona voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

But you might want to start thinking now about what message you would like to send.

Arguments are now being accepted by the Secretary of State's Office. You have until 5 p.m. on June 24 to submit and pay for them.

Be aware, however. You could draft your comments, pony up your $75 and still not get your say. It all has to do with deadlines. But more about that in a bit.

How to take part

A long-standing state law allows individuals, organizations and political committees to make their own pitch to voters about ballot issues. The Secretary of State's Office then mails these out in the ballot pamphlets, one to each head of household with at least one registered voter.

It all starts from a website that will go live next week: ballotarguments.az.gov.

First, pick out the issues on which you would like to opine.

Then, just follow the instructions, type in what you want to say — up to 300 words — fill out the rest of the form and, when prompted, make your $75 payment online with a credit card.

What you do with those 300 words is pretty much up to you.

The Secretary of State's Office doesn't edit for content. That means any typos you make will remain for everyone else to see. So proofread carefully.

But the office said it might seek legal advice before printing an argument with four-letter words not generally used in polite conversation.

Just about anything else, however, is in bounds — even if it doesn't actually relate to the ballot measure.

Don't worry about filling in the ballot number, like "Proposition 100.'' Leave a blank and that will be filled in by the office when it eventually assigns the numbers.

There are constraints.

The website won't accept efforts to use bold or italics to make a point, though people are free to capitalize for emphasis.

Also, only online submissions will be accepted. Forget about typing or printing up something at home and showing up at the Secretary of State's Office, paper and $75 in hand.

Still, if you have a lot to say about a lot of things — and money to burn — there's no limit to the number of ballot arguments you can submit, either on one or multiple issues. Just submit those $75 fees.

Measures on the ballot or possible

There already are three measures, referred last year by the Legislature, that definitely will be on the ballot:

• Precluding lawmakers from taxing vehicles based on the mileage they drive, a bid to remove that as an option for dealing with the fact that owners of electric vehicles don't buy gas and don't pay a gas tax;
• Restricting the authority of cities to impose their sales taxes on food;
• Declaring drug cartels "terrorist organizations'' and requiring the Arizona Department of Homeland Security to do "everything in its authority'' to address the threat.

But more could be coming.

One proposal still awaiting final legislative action, for example, would say that cities can't use photo enforcement for speed or red lights unless local voters give their approval. And any community that has that now would need to take it to the ballot.

Another seeks to prohibit anyone born as male from participating in intramural or interscholastic sports designed for females, women or girls.

There's also a plan to raise the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75.

And there's a proposal to allow convicts facing the death penalty to choose among lethal injection, lethal gas or the firing squad.

In total, there are 25 measures pending at the Republican-led Arizona Capitol that legislative leaders may or may not choose to try to put on the November ballot.

Citizens' initiatives

There also are efforts by various groups to put their own initiatives on the ballot.

Several appear to already have been abandoned, like one to cap the salaries of hospital executives and another to repeal a voter-approved law that legalized marijuana for recreational use.

Among those that appear to still be active, however, are:

• Two separate measures that seek changes in the system of providing vouchers of taxpayer dollars for students to attend private, parochial or home schools, known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. The proposals have some similar provisions, such as limiting what can be purchased with the funds. But there are key differences, with one putting a cap on eligibility based on family income.
• A constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to get an early ballot and vote by mail.

Deadline issues

But here's the thing. Initiative petitions are not due until July 2 — eight days after the deadline for ballot arguments. So anyone wanting to submit ballot arguments has to essentially risk the $75 fee that the measures on which they would like to opine actually will qualify for the ballot.

Put another way, if the petition signature count falls short or a measure is knocked off the ballot through litigation, there are no refunds.

And this year, there's another complicating factor.

It's unclear whether the Legislature will have finished its business — including deciding what to send to the ballot — by that June 24 deadline. So here, too, those who want to comment still have to meet that deadline and pay the fee, even if it turns out the measure is never actually referred to voters.