Liane Breckling v. Arturo Hernandez

SUPREME COURT OF ARIZONA

LIANE BRECKLING, ) Arizona Supreme Court
) No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL
Plaintiff/Appellant, )
) Maricopa County
v. ) Superior Court
) No. CV2024-008720
ARTURO HERNANDEZ, et al., )
)
Defendants/Appellees. ) FILED 05/07/2024
)
__________________________________)

DECISION ORDER

On April 29, 2024, Appellant/Plaintiff/Challenger Breckling

filed a timely Notice of Appeal. On April 30, 2024, Cochise County

filed a “Notice of Appearance and Notice of Cochise County’s Ballot

Printing Deadline” advising the Court of the need to decide this

matter no later than May 7, 2024. The parties agreed to an expedited

stipulated briefing schedule and submitted simultaneous briefs. Upon

consideration of the briefs filed by Challenger and by

Appellee/Defendant Candidate Hernandez, along with the record in this

matter, a panel, consisting of Justices Bolick, Montgomery, Beene and

King finds as follows.

On April 25, 2024, the trial court conducted a trial in this

expedited election challenge. The parties have stipulated that

pertinent to the appeal, two circulators—Humphries and Thompson—did

not register as circulators for candidate Hernandez but did register

for other candidates. Challenger contends that these circulators’

signatures must be stricken because the circulators did not comply

Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL
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with the statutory registration requirements of A.R.S. §§ 16-

315(D)(“Circulators who are not residents of this state must be

registered as circulators with the Secretary of State before

circulating petitions . . . the Secretary of State shall establish in

the instructions and procedures manual issued pursuant to § 16-452 a

procedure for registering circulators and receiving service of

process.”) and 16-321(D) (requiring that a circulator who is not a

resident of this state “shall register as a circulator with the

secretary of state”).

The Election Procedures Manual (“EPM”) and Secretary’s portal

and training guide direct registering out-of-state circulators to

provide certain identifying information including name, telephone

number, email address, and address for service of process.

Additionally, “[o]nce a circulator is properly registered, the

circulator must select in the Circulator Portal the petition(s) they

will circulate (by serial number and/or candidate name.)” EPM Chapter

6 Sec. II (C).

With respect to the statutory requirements for registration of

out-of-state nomination petition circulators, the trial court

observed:

A.R.S. § 16-315(D) provides that non-resident circulators
must register. The statute does not require that non-
resident circulators register for a specific candidate. In
other contexts, the Legislature has required discrete
registrations for specific petition issues. See A.R.S. §
19-118(A); Leibsohn v. Hobbs, 254 Ariz. 1, 6-7, ¶ 20 (2022)

Arizona Supreme Court No. CV-24-0087-AP/EL
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(reviewing statewide initiative and referendum petitions).
The requirements for candidate petitions [are] different
than for ballot measures. See Powers v. Carpenter, 203
Ariz. 116, 118, ¶ 10 (2002) (refusing to apply statute
governing ballot measure petitions to candidate nomination
petitions); Morales v. Archibald, 246 Ariz. 398, 401, ¶ 12
(2019) (declining to “conflate[] the process for recalls
with those for initiatives and referenda”).

As for the role of the EPM, the trial court noted:

The Legislature has authorized the Secretary to “establish
. . . a procedure for registering circulators” through the
Elections Procedures Manual (“EPM”), see A.R.S. § 16-
315(D). The EPM does not expressly instruct that separate,
per-candidate registrations are a prerequisite to the
associated signatures’ substantive validity. See EPM
Chapter 6, sec. 2 subsec. (C). Even if that were true, the
statute does not contain a requirement that circulators
register for a particular candidate. Cf. Leach v. Hobbs, 250 Ariz. 572, 576, ¶¶ 20–21 (2021) (EPM’s creation of a
de-registration process for ballot measure circulators
could not affect the circulators’ statutory
responsibilities or the legal sufficiency of underlying
signatures). The EPM confirms that circulators who are not
residents of Arizona must register with the Secretary of
State “prior to circulating: . . . a candidate petition in
any Arizona jurisdiction (statewide, county, city, or
town).” See EPM Chapter 6, sec. 2 subsec. (B) (emphasis
added). Failure to do so invalidates the signatures
collected by the circulator prior to registration. Here,
Plaintiff has not provided evidence that either Mr.
Humphries or Mr. Thompson circulated any petitions before
registering.

We concur in the trial court’s assessment of A.R.S. § 16-315(D)

and the EPM. Accordingly, Humphries and Thompson complied with the

requirements for the registration of out-of-state circulators and

thus there is no need to address whether they “substantially

complied.” See e.g., Feldmeier v. Watson, 211 Ariz. 444, 447 ¶ 14

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(2005) (discussing “the nature of . . . statutory requirements, the

extent to which the petitions differ from the requirements, and the

purpose of the requirements” in determining whether initiative

petitions substantially complied with a statute). Consequently,

Objection No. 11 provides no basis for invalidating signatures.

IT IS ORDERED affirming the trial court decision and directing

that the counties include candidate Arturo Hernandez on the ballot.

DATED this 7th day of May, 2024.

_______/s/_________________
CLINT BOLICK
Justice

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TO:
Brian M McIntyre
Roy Herrera
Daniel A Arellano
Jillian Andrews
Austin T Marshall
Elisabeth C Frost
Omeed Alerasool
Kory A Langhofer
Thomas J Basile
Kara Karlson
Karen J Hartman-Tellez
Kyle R Cummings
Celeste M Robertson
Christine Roberts
Paul Correa
Rose Winkeler
Jeff Dalton
Jean Anne Roof
Gary Griffith
Scott Adams
Rachel F Shackelford
Joseph Eugene La Rue
Jack O'Connor
Rosa Aguilar
Ryan Henry Esplin
Jason Mitchell
Jason S Moore
Daniel S Jurkowitz
Ellen Ridge Brown
Javier Adalberto Gherna
Craig C Cameron
Scott Matthew Johnson
Jim Mitchell
Ian Daranyi
Kimberly J Hunley
William Moran
Robert F May
Thomas M Stoxen
Michael J Gordon
William J Kerekes
Jessica Holzer
Hon Danielle J Viola
Hon Jeff Fine
Alberto Rodriguez