Arizona lawmakers voted Thursday over the objections of state Treasurer Jeff DeWit to approve an explanation of Proposition 123.
State law requires the ballot explanation that's mailed to every registered voter to be impartial. But DeWit maintains it’s a lie to say that Prop 123, which would sharply increase the amount of money taken from the land trust to settle a suit by state schools, will protect the principal of the trust. He said voters are being misled by not being told that Congress, which gave Arizona the trust land, will have to approve anything voters okay.
“They've purposely put some misleading statements in here in an attempt to get more votes at the ballot by misleading the public," DeWit said. "So I think what we need to do is make sure that the public gets accurately informed and can make an accurate decision based on the facts. And they're not being allowed to do that.”
DeWit said one option is to sue and ask a judge to force the Legislative Council to recraft the explanation in a form he says is more accurate.