Arizona

Arizona has a plural executive with some genuinely unusual offices. Voters elect the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction — each independently. Two elected bodies stand out: the State Mine Inspector, an office almost no other state has, reflecting Arizona’s mining history; and the five-member Corporation Commission, elected statewide, which regulates public utilities, securities, and corporate registration with powers most states hand to appointed agencies.

Arizona historically had no lieutenant governor. If the governorship became vacant, the separately elected Secretary of State was first in line — a path that has actually elevated several secretaries to governor. Voters approved creating a lieutenant governor who, beginning with the 2026 election, runs on a joint ticket with the governor; until that takes effect the Secretary of State remains the successor. The Governor appoints the heads of the agencies that aren’t separately elected.

The Arizona State Legislature is bicameral, built on 30 legislative districts that each elect one senator and two representatives — so there are 30 senators and 60 representatives, all serving two-year terms. It is a part-time, citizen legislature, with pay around $24,000 a year plus a per diem, and members are limited to eight consecutive years in a single chamber.

The Legislature convenes each January and generally aims to finish in about 100 days, though there is no hard constitutional cap and sessions can run longer. Its power over policy is, distinctively, constrained from below — by what the voters have locked in at the ballot box (see below).

A bill is introduced, sent to committee, and — if it advances — voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law, and holds a line-item veto over appropriations; an override normally takes two-thirds of each chamber.

Arizona’s defining feature is the Voter Protection Act. Citizens can pass statutes and constitutional amendments by initiative and repeal laws by referendum — but the Voter Protection Act goes further than other states’ direct democracy: a law approved by the voters cannot be repealed by the Legislature, and can be amended only if the change "furthers the purpose" of the original measure and passes by a three-fourths supermajority of each chamber. In effect, the people can write law that lawmakers are powerless to undo — a far stronger guarantee than the ordinary initiative found elsewhere.

The Governor appoints the heads of the non-elected agencies, proposes the budget, can call special sessions, holds broad emergency powers, and wields a line-item veto. Within the executive branch the Governor shares authority with the independently elected Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Superintendent, Mine Inspector, and Corporation Commission. The Governor also holds the clemency power, acting on recommendations from the Board of Executive Clemency.

The distinctive limit is from the voters, not another official: because the Voter Protection Act freezes initiated laws against legislative repeal, a large share of Arizona policy is effectively beyond the reach of both the Governor and the Legislature once the people have enacted it.

Arizona uses merit selection plus retention for its higher courts and its largest counties. The Governor appoints Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges from a slate offered by a nonpartisan judicial nominating commission, and those judges then face periodic up-or-down retention votes rather than contested elections. Judges in the smaller counties are chosen in nonpartisan elections. The Supreme Court of Arizona sits at the top, above the Court of Appeals and the trial-level Superior Court.