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‘DARK MONEY’ BAN Goddard said the signature-gathering e ort would be all

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34 volunteer. Typically, gathering more than 200,000 signatures is
a di cult goal to reach without paid circulators, but Goddard
Before Arizonans get a chance to vote, Goddard and a team pointed to a recent e ort to refer a controversial law expanding
of volunteer circulators must gather 225,963 valid signatures school vouchers to voters as evidence that volunteers can get the
of registered voters by July 5, 2018, to put the proposed job done.
constitutional amendment on the November ballot. at campaign, Save Our Schools Arizona, needed to gather
If approved by the voters, the Arizona Constitution would be 75,321 signatures in 90 days to block the school voucher
amended to require campaigns that exceed $10,000 in spending expansion bill this summer. ey gathered more than 110,000
in a two-year election cycle to disclose the original sources of signatures, and now their network of volunteer circulators is
donations they receive. A campaign would have ve days to prepared to help Goddard get the dark money ban on the ballot,
make the disclosure. A er every subsequent $10,000 or more too.
in expenses, they would have 24 hours to disclose the sources of “Many of those folks are kind enough to help us,” Goddard
their latest donations. said of the SOS Arizona campaign. “So we’re starting from, as
e Citizens Clean Elections Commission would be given the they say, the shoulders of giants.”
authority to enforce the new disclosure rules by means of ning Dawn Penich-Thacker, a spokeswoman for SOS Arizona,
those who fail to make disclosures in a timely fashion, or even said the campaign’s network of volunteer circulators are
bringing a campaign before a judge. ose nes would in turn be already fired up about the anti-dark money effort, and that
used to nance the commission’s enforcement e orts. they see parallels between it and their own campaign against
ere is an exception in the constitutional amendment – the voucher bill.
donors whose contributions are less than $2,500 in a two-year
election cycle don’t need to disclose their identity. CONTINUED ON PAGE 37

36 THE EDGE WINTER 2018

THE EDGE |