Thu, Aug 28, 2008

Tucson Region

Indian voting faces challenge

Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.26.2008
PHOENIX — A court challenge to the nominating petitions of three legislative candidates could determine what requirements are imposed on reservation residents.
A judge will consider Friday whether to count the signatures of voters who listed only a post office box on petitions. The contention is these do not match the addresses on voter-registration forms.
But Rep. Pete Rios, D-Dudleyville, said there's a good reason for that: Many reservation residents do not have a street address. So their voter forms do things like describe where they live in terms of distances from landmarks.
Rep. Ben Miranda, D-Phoenix, acknowledged that the law does require petitions to contain a street address. But he said that, given the peculiar nature of reservations, courts should instead interpret the "spirit of the law."