Organizers of a grassroots conservative effort to refer Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan to the ballot are keeping quiet about their progress as they prepare for the final month of their signature-gathering efforts.

Former Mesa Justice of the Peace Lester Pearce has agreed to a low-level form of discipline for getting involved in the 2011 Legislative District 19 recall election of his brother, former Senate President Russell Pearce.

The balance between election officials’ need for time to count signatures and petition gatherers’ need to satisfy a mathematical margin-of-error quietly tipped last year. The result is higher bar for citizen initiatives to get onto the ballot.

The Checks and Balances in Government initiative appears to have a slim chance of getting on the November ballot because a large percentage of the initiative’s petition signatures are invalid.

Rebuffed by the Secretary of State, the group that is spearheading the initiative to raise sales taxes by one cent went to court today in the hopes of compelling election officials to put the measure on the November ballot. The Quality Education and Jobs Committee also asked the Maricopa Superior Court to expedite its hearing of the case. The group had turned in nearly 291,000 signatures on June 25.

The Senate primary contest pitting Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, and Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, was already turning out to be among the hottest races in Arizona this year.

This week, the temperature shot up a couple of degrees.

A spokesman for the man that many expect will provide Senate President Russell Pearce with the stiffest competition in November’s recall election said the campaign has already collected signatures from enough voters to get Jerry Lewis’ name on the ballot.

Attorney General Terry Goddard on March 12 submitted the signatures and $5 contributions needed to qualify as a Clean Elections candidate for the 2010 governor’s race.