Major Victory For Arizona Citizens

PHOENIX, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The Arizona Legislature's attempt to trick voters into approving an anti-employee ballot measure has been shot down by a Maricopa County Superior Court.

SCR 1026, the so-called "Right to Vote a Secret Ballot" measure, was ruled "unconstitutional" by Judge Robert H. Oberbillig who heard the case brought by UFCW Local 99 and its president Jim McLaughlin.

"There was nothing "fair" about this legislation," said McLaughlin. "It was little more than a despicable attempt to trick patriotic Arizona voters who value fair elections into approving an attack on the rights of all working people in our state."

The Court ruled that the Arizona Constitution already requires "secret ballots" for public offices and that extending the government's reach into private sector union representation matters would violate the constitution's provisions against wrapping two unrelated subjects together into one ballot measure.

The Court said specifically that SCR 1026 violates Article XXI, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution, a provision that safeguards against this sort of trickery.

Judge Oberbillig wrote that public sector and private sector elections are not  sufficiently or logically related to one another.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99 is the largest private sector union in Arizona representing over 18,000 men and women.

SOURCE UFCW Local 99