Crosspost from http://www.liquidnixon.com
Secretary of State Jan Brewer, who is up for re-election on November 7th, has the responsibility for publishing the ballots for the election. In assembling that publication, it is her job to summarize the effect of each of the ballot propositions concisely and accurately and ensure that those summaries appear on the ballot. Unfortunately, a mistake in the ballot summary on Proposition 203 will likely cost Arizona taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees from the inevitable challenge by big tobacco.
The mistake was first reported by E.J. Montini of the Arizona Republic based on the observation of Michael Stern. In his article, Montini pointed out that the ballot, instead of accurately indicating that the measure would increase the cost of a pack of cigarettes by 80 cents, puts the cost at .80 cents per pack, 1/100th of the amount that the measure actually indicates. To be clear, this error appears only in the ballot summary. The actual measure lists the tax to be "on each cigarette, four cents" and it was only the Secretary of State's synopsis that indicates the incorrect value of .80 cents per pack. As a result, the measure, if passed will go into effect at 80 cents per pack, in all likelihood triggering lawsuits from big tobacco who will try to claim that people thought they were voting for a much lower tax. Of course, if the measure were to fail, despite polls showing its likely passage, there is also the likelihood of multiple lawsuits against the Secretary of State's office for failure to conduct her duties properly causing the failure of the measure.
To make matters worse, outside of the original Arizona Republic article, this error has gotten virtually no publicity in the media. By not informing the public of this error, the media has made it more likely that a challenge by big tobacco could succeed since they can point to the lack of media coverage as evidence that the public didn't understand the measure they were voting for.
As an example, the CBS 5 Morning News gave a total of 26 seconds to the error, simply pointing out that it occurred and showing the text of ".80 cent / pack" vs. "80 cent / pack" with no discussion of what the measure actually says. In fact, channel 5's story stated that the error could cost schools money, but gave no indication how, leaving viewers with the impression that the tax might go into effect at the lower rate, thus adding to voter confusion and increasing the likelihood of a successful challenge in court. It should also be pointed out that in the same program more than 30 seconds were devoted to rumors of the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
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New this morning, some think that a misplaced decimal point could cost state schools millions of dollars. According to the Arizona Republic, the text of proposition 203 calls for a .80 cent tax on a pack of cigarettes. Backers of the plan are actually seeking an 80 cent per pack tax. If passed, the money generated by prop 203 is supposed to go to early childhood education and health programs.
Clearly, some significant action needs to be taken now to prevent lawsuits from delaying the enactment of this measure. I call on Secretary of State Brewer, who, as of this writing, has nothing on her official website regarding this error, to acknowledge the mistake, take all reasonable steps to correct it, and make significant efforts to inform the voters of the correct effects of the measure. Her failure to do so would compound the error, virtually guaranteeing that whether the proposition passes or fails, the real losers will be the taxpayers of Arizona.