A petition to undo Mesa’s newly minted nondiscrimination ordinance has enough voter signatures to head to the ballot. However, the referendum could still face challenges to knock it off the ballot. 

City and Maricopa County officials each reviewed the submitted signatures for the referendum effort and found there to be more than the roughly 9,100 needed to go to the voters. 

This begins a five-day period for individuals or groups to file challenges in court to invalidate more signatures and block the referendum from the ballot. Such challenges are expected. 

The Mesa City Council approved the ordinance on March 1 that extended protections to the LGBTQ community and others when it comes to public accommodation, employment, and housing.  

Ongoing debate over Mesa’s ordinance

A few days after the council vote, a political committee called United for Mesa was formed to launch a referendum campaign to try to reverse the decision via citywide ballot.

The law has stoked significant debate in Mesa, with some viewing the ordinance as a civil rights issue and a matter of equality and respect, and others seeing it as a dangerous and unnecessary law that could cause harm.

Critics have raised concerns about privacy and safety in bathrooms, for example, although supporters of the ordinance say that is fearmongering and has not been an issue in cities with similar ordinances.

Mayor John Giles has been a strong supporter of the ordinance and has said he believes most Mesa residents want everyone to be treated fairly and with respect. 

Mesa was the seventh Arizona city to approve a nondiscrimination ordinance that extends protections to LGBTQ individuals. Scottsdale passed a similar ordinance soon after. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints waded into the Mesa debate, voicing its support for Arizona public policy that protects LGBTQ people and religious rights.

Political consultant George Khalaf, whose firm is leading the referendum effort against the ordinance, could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

How the signatures were reviewed 

Khalaf’s group filed 11,505 signatures with Mesa’s city clerk on the April 1 deadline, launching the signature review process. 

The city clerk first verified the signatures following state law guidelines, which provide a detailed list of reasons a signature or petition page must be disqualified.

The clerk invalidated 338 signatures, which left 11,167 of the submitted signatures. The clerk then sent a random sample to the Maricopa County Elections Department for verification last week, according the city.  

The county invalidated 81 signatures from the sample of 559, according to the report it provided to the city. Those were invalid mostly because the individuals were not registered voters, lived out of district or wrote a different address.

Invalidating the 81 signatures left 11,086 signatures. If that 85.5% validity rate from the sample was applied to the remaining 11,086 signatures, that would still leave 9,478 valid signatures, which is above the threshold to get on the ballot, city spokesperson Randy Policar said.

If the measure makes the ballot, it would go to voters in November 2022 unless the council would call for an earlier special election this fall or in 2022.

Have a story about Mesa or Gilbert? Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter @alisteinbach.

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