Governor Hobbs Vetoes Bill That Would Have Weakened Arizona Referendum Rights

QUEEN CREEK, Arizona — Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill that would have allowed citizen referendum petitions to be withdrawn before they reached the ballot, preserving a tool Arizona voters use to challenge laws passed by the Legislature.

The legislation, House Bill 2873, passed the state Legislature in late April after being introduced in January. It would have permitted the withdrawal of referendum petitions before a vote, which advocacy groups said would have weakened direct democracy in the state. The bill reached Hobbs' desk in June, and she rejected it.

While the measure did not mention data centers directly, its referendum provisions became entangled with local disputes over data center development. In the town of Marana, residents who gathered signatures to challenge a proposed data center known as Project Blue later sued after their petitions were rejected. Opponents argued that had the bill become law, the grounds for appealing such rejections would have disappeared.

The referendum process is empowering the people of Arizona and it's been pivotal to our history. It's a way for the public to really make their voice heard. Interfering with that referendum process, to us, is an attack on direct democracy.

Natali Fierros, executive director of the advocacy group Rural Arizona Action, said her organization had expected Hobbs to sign the bill before public pressure built against it. She said residents from Marana carpooled to the Capitol to testify before lawmakers. Arizona's midterm elections are scheduled for July 21.

Queen Creek, a town of roughly 70,000 in the Phoenix metropolitan area, sits about 40 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix in Maricopa and Pinal counties. The referendum veto carries relevance for fast-growing Phoenix suburbs weighing data center proposals of their own as development pushes outward.

Sources: https://azluminaria.org/2026/07/01/arizona-governor-vetoes-bill-that-would-weaken-referendums-and-empower-data-centers/ | https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/57leg/2R/bills/hb2873s.pdf