Guide

The Arizona Constitution uses the standard constitutional structure of articles divided into sections, with some articles first divided into parts before being divided into sections. It also follows the common practice of incorporating amendments directly into the main text of the constitution. However, there are a handful of instances in which the constitution’s official text includes multiple versions of a section. When voters approve two or more amendments affecting the same constitutional provision at the same election, those amendments are incorporated into the constitution as distinct versions of the same provision.

Under Article IV, Part 1, Section 1(12) of the constitution, "If two or more conflicting measures or amendments to the constitution shall be approved by the people at the same election, the measure or amendment receiving the greatest number of affirmative votes shall prevail in all particulars as to which there is conflict." Thus, as they adjudicate cases, courts may be asked to decide whether simultaneous amendments conflict or whether they can be harmonized. But both amendments remain part of the constitution’s formal text unless and until the document is formally amended.

For example, in 1968, Arizonans passed two legislatively-referred amendments to Article V, Section 1, resulting in two versions of that provision. The Arizona Supreme Court determined that the two versions were not in conflict and harmonized them. Then, in 1988, the legislature proposed an amendment to Article V, Section 1 that relied on the court's harmonized version of the section. After the 1988 amendment's ratification, there was once again only one version of Article V, Section 1. However, in 1992, Arizonans again passed two amendments (one legislatively-referred and one citizen-initiated) to Article V, Section 1, again creating two versions of the section. In 2022, voters amended the version of this section created by the citizen-initiated amendment, which continues to exist concurrent with the other version of the section created by 1992 legislatively-referred amendment.

Likewise, there are currently two versions of Article XIX due to voters approving both an initiated and a legislatively-referred amendment in 1992.