By Jonathan J Cooper, Associated Press

(AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court today rejected a request to allow online signature gathering for proposed ballot measures.

Backers of four initiatives—one on which was to legalize recreational marijuana for adults—asked the court to let them use an online signature gathering platform used by candidates to avoid the risk of in-person signature gathering during the coronavirus outbreak. The justices ruled without explanation.

Fortunately, another recreational cannabis legalization initiative in Arizona, the Smart and Safe Arizona ballot initiative, reported to AZmarijuana.com in March that they gathered more than enough signatures needed to get their initiative onto ballots in November 2020, so they will not be affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) or the court’s ruling.

“The campaign has over 300,000 signatures which is well over the required number,” Eric Chambers from the campaign stated in March. “For the health and safety of everyone, we have suspended signature gathering for the time being but are in good shape.”

Elected officials can currently collect signatures they need to qualify for the ballot using the secretary of state’s online “E-Qual” system. But initiatives backers are required to collect their qualifying signatures in-person.

Photo: Ted Eytan/Flickr CC2.0 Modified