The Arizona Supreme Court struck down a proposed ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, would have revoked a handful of election-integrity laws passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature.

“When the dust settled, the Arizona Free and Fair Elections Act, which sought to make sweeping changes to Arizona’s election and campaign finance laws, fell just 1,458 signatures short of qualifying for the November ballot. A day earlier, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Mikitish ruled the ballot had 2,281 more valid signatures than the 237,645 it needed to appear on the general election ballot,” the Tuscon Sentinal reported.

“But late Thursday, the Supreme Court said it was unable to verify Mikitish’s math and ordered him to clarify it on Friday morning. When he did, Mikitish revised his calculations and concluded that the initiative fell short, disqualifying it from the ballot. The Supreme Court affirmed that ruling a few hours later, despite an appeal from Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections, which backed the bill, claiming that Mikitish’s new math was flawed,” the report added.

Last year, the Arizona legislature passed a law that “requires the state to remove infrequent voters from the state’s Permanent Early Voting List, turning it into an ‘active’ early voting list.”

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club applauded the ruling, saying it “vindicates what we knew all along: the radical Free and Fair election initiative lacked enough lawful signatures to qualify for the ballot.”

“The other side knew it too, and that is why their lawyers tried to get the court to adopt a rigged methodology to calculate the final number of valid signatures that would sneak their disqualified measure onto the ballot,” they added in a statement.

Democrats were not happy about the ruling.

Stacy Pearson, the group’s spokeswoman, called the ruling disappointing.

“It would have prevented judicial interference in direct democracy, and judicial interference literally ended this option for direct democracy,” she said. “Voters turned in 475,000 signatures — double the 237,645 requirement. But, Governor Ducey’s expanded and stacked Supreme Court found a way to invalidate over 50% of the signatures.”

GOP Gov. Doug Ducey also signed a bill earlier this year requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections, which has been subject of a lawsuit filed against Arizona by the Biden Department of Justice.

Arizona Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running to be the next governor of the state, complained about the bill earlier this bill.

“Arizona’s vote-by-mail system has been used by voters for decades, and the changes proposed in this bill are unnecessary and detrimental to the voters who depend on it to ensure that their voice is heard. When our democracy was challenged, Arizona’s election officials and the people of our state courageously protected it. We should be able to expect the same level of courage from their Governor. I am disappointed that he signed this bill into law,” Hobbs said.

“The default for most Arizona voters is voting by mail. It’s become ingrained into how we vote in Arizona. We’ve had it for 25 years, 75 percent of Arizonans are on the Permanent Early Vote List,” she added. “It will create chaos in voting — making those kind of changes.”

Republicans, of course, supported the bill and hit back at Democrats.

“The best country in the world and you have an opportunity to participate in it, but it’s not at the top of somebody’s list?” said GOP state Sen. Vince Leach. “This bill removes nonvoters, they have elected not to participate. Or they’ve moved, or they’re dead.”

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