Court Opinion

ID: 9633260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:40:34.444201+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:13:07.237811
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Justice, with whom LOCKWOOD, Justice,
concurs, dissenting.
This case was brought to test the constitutionality of A.R.S. § 16-844(1) as applicable to the November 13, 1973 Primary *163Election in the City of Phoenix. Sample ballots distributed by the City, insofar as peritnent to the vote for councilmen, were in this form:

*164Respondent, Klahr, in his action in the Superior Court of Maricopa County, Arizona, alleged that the words “Vote for Six” were misleading and deceptive in that the language implied that the voter was obligated to vote for six candidates for the council when, in fact, a voter has the right to vote for less than six, and that some voters would prefer to vote for only one candidate among those running. The Superior Court found as a fact, after an evidentiary hearing, that the instruction to vote for six was misleading and directed that these words be placed upon the ballot: “Vote for no more than six.” But it does not take a judicial finding to establish what is baldly obvious. The unsophisticated are also entitled to the unimpaired exercise of constitutional rights.
By Article 7, § 12 of the Constitution of this State, the Legislature is directed to enact laws “to secure the purity of elections.” The words “to secure the purity of elections” have cogent legal significance. They import that a candidate for public office has a fundamental right to fair play in an honest election which cannot in any manner be curtailed without good cause. Any law which damages or impairs this fundamental right of citizenship subverts the purity of elections.
The question here is, how stringent a standard should this Court apply to insure the purity of elections. In this, no standard is acceptable except that which guarantees that all can vote intelligently and knowledgeably. To this end, such words should be placed upon the ballot as will unequivocally inform the voters that they can vote for six or any number less than six.
We are not here concerned with the “average voter”, as the majority announce; rather, we are concerned with the understanding of all voters, and that no voter be mislead. By the knowledgeable exercise of the elective franchise minority voters can secure minority representation on the City Council.