Arizona State Reps. Alex Kolodin, left, and Travis Grantham, right, speak during a legislative session at the Arizona House of Representatives. Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
It may seem like elected officials hold all the power in Arizona, but that’s not entirely true. The Arizona Constitution gives voters a very specific kind of power—the ballot measure. However, right now Republican elected officials are trying to change that.
As recently as November 2024, Arizona voters amended the state’s constitution by approving ballot measure Proposition 139. That’s the local power of ballot measures—voters petition to add one to an upcoming election, and if they get enough signatures from other registered voters in the state, the measure will be put on the ballot. If the measure receives more than 50% of the vote, it passes, and the state constitution is amended.
Local Republican leaders, however, want to change the process to require a “supermajority” to pass citizen-led initiatives and constitutional amendments like Prop 139, and they want to make it easier to repeal those that voters have already passed.
HCR 2025 was introduced by Arizona Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), and it passed in the Arizona House on March 11. If the Arizona Senate passes it, HCR 2025 will be sent to voters in 2026.
HCR 2025 would increase the threshold for voters to change the state’s constitution from a simple majority to a supermajority. That means it would require citizen-led ballot initiatives to pass with 60% of the vote, instead of 50% plus one.
There’s one fairly large exception for the 60% rule that would be put in place by HCR 2025, and that’s for future ballot measures that would repeal amendments already in place.
Would it really matter?
It may help to look to Florida for examples of the supermajority at work.
Florida has a 60% requirement to pass constitutional amendments, and two 2024 ballot initiatives that the majority of voters supported failed because of it: Legalizing recreational marijuana received 55.9% of the vote, and enshrining abortion into the state’s constitution got 57.2% of the vote, both falling short of the 60% supermajority needed to pass.
How would they be easier to repeal?
In addition to requiring a 60% supermajority to pass new citizen-led initiatives, Arizona Republicans have written HCR 2025 to allow a simple majority to repeal existing provisions in the state’s constitution. That means it would only take 50% plus one vote to remove any current rights in the state constitution that were established by prior ballot initiatives—such as Prop 139.
If passed by the Legislature and approved by voters, HCR2025 would mark the second time this decade that Arizona voters elected to take away their own power to craft laws and change the constitution.
In 2022, Arizona passed Prop 132. That ballot measure made it significantly more difficult for Arizonans to pass tax increases to fund popular programs and institutions. It changed the requirement for voters to increase taxes from 50% plus one vote to 60%.
RELATED: Prop 139 prevents AZ gov’t from interfering with legal abortions—yet state Republicans keep trying
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