Phoenix and Tucson can continue to hold candidate elections in odd-numbered years after a Court of Appeals upheld a decision that the cities are not bound by a 2012 state law that aligned local elections with federal, state and county elections. The Tucson-based Court of Appeals, Division Two on Monday upheld a Pima County Superior Court ruling in favor of the cities and agreed that charter city authority supersedes state law when scheduling charter city candidate elections. The trial court injunction against state enforcement of the law remains in effect. If the law were to affect Phoenix this year, Mayor Greg Stanton and other municipal elected officials could have had their terms extended by several months or even a year because elections would have moved to even-numbered years.
Sandra Hunter, an attorney for Phoenix who worked on the case, said the ruling affirms that Phoenix can continue holding odd-year candidate elections as city voters said they wanted via the city charter.
“For the city of Phoenix it really won’t cause any impact or disruption because we never did change from our odd-year candidate election cycle,” Hunter said. “Our last candidate election was in 2013, and our next candidate election will be in 2015.”
Full Article: Court ruling upholds Phoenix and Tucson election dates.