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Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2024

Did the Arizona Citizen’s Clean Elections Commission intentionally exclude Green Party candidates from general election debates?


no

The Arizona Citizen’s Clean Elections Commission, which sponsors election debates, did not intentionally exclude Green Party candidates from the 2024 general election cycle.

The commission partnered with the Arizona Media Association (AMA) to broadcast debates for the 2024 general election. As part of its agreement, the AMA was granted discretion to set a minimum threshold for candidates to qualify for the debates. No Green Party candidates met this threshold, which required them to get at least 1% of the ballots cast in their respective primary contest.

The threshold applies to all parties and follows debate broadcasting norms across the nation.

Green Party members make up 0.08% of Arizona’s registered voters, and unlike Republicans and Democrats in Arizona, hold closed primary elections. This means the state’s non-affiliated voters, which make up roughly 33% of Arizona voters, can’t cast ballots for Green Party candidates in the primary election.

See a full discussion of this at Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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