The Secretary of State’s office must count signatures collected by volunteer canvassers by Monday
By Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate
The Arkansas Supreme Court Tuesday night ordered Secretary of State John Thurston to count signatures collected by volunteer canvassers for a proposed ballot initiative to expand abortion access. The state’s high court ordered the count to be completed by 9 a.m. Monday.
After Arkansans for Limited Government submitted more than 101,000 signatures in support of the proposed constitutional amendment by the July 5 deadline, Thurston rejected the submission because he said the group did not submit legally required accompanying paperwork with the petitions, therefore rendering invalid signatures collected by paid canvassers.
AFLG filed a lawsuit last week asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the rejection. The group’s attorneys also filed a motion to expedite the case, asking the high court for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction overruling Thurston’s decision not to count the signatures.
In response to the Supreme Court granting emergency relief, AFLG said “the will of the people won” in a statement issued late Tuesday night. The ballot question committee also thanked the court “for upholding democracy in Arkansas.”
“We are heartened by this outcome, which honors the constitutional rights of Arkansans to participate in direct democracy, the voices of 101,000 Arkansas voters who signed the petition, and the work of hundreds of volunteers across the state who poured themselves into this effort,” the statement said. “Today’s decision is reflective of our state motto: ‘The People Rule,’ and we look forward to that principle guiding the rest of the signature verification process.”
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a motion to dismiss AFLG’s lawsuit on Friday. He argued that Thurston “correctly rejected” AFLG’s submission because they failed to submit the proper paperwork. Griffin also argued the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction over AFLG’s original action because the group didn’t comply with requirements.
AFLG’s attorney, Peter Shults, filed a response to the motion Monday in which he argued that the Supreme Court does have original jurisdiction because Thurston made a sufficiency determination.
Shults also argued that noncompliance with § 7-9-111(f)(2), the state law that Thurston cited as the reason for rejecting AFLG’s petition, alone does not invalidate an entire petition or any part of it. A separate section of state code provides “the exclusive list of reasons” for not counting petition signatures, not the statute cited by Thurston, he said.
Additionally, AFLG asked the secretary of state’s office what paperwork needed to be signed and submitted, and Thurston’s attorneys and representatives assured AFLG Executive Director Lauren Cowles on July 5 that she had filed the necessary paperwork with her submission, Shults said.
“Petitioners continually tried to follow the correct procedures and the Secretary’s office repeatedly told them they were doing so, before the Secretary abruptly rejected their petition,” he wrote. “This bait and switch was unfair, and the Secretary should be estopped from rejecting petitioners’ submission.”
If the proposed Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024 makes it to the ballot and is approved by voters in November, it would not allow government entities to “prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization.”
The proposal would also permit abortion services in cases of rape, incest, a fatal fetal anomaly or to “protect the pregnant female’s life or physical health,” and it would nullify any of the state’s existing “provisions of the Constitution, statutes and common law” that conflict with it.
Abortion has been illegal in Arkansas, except to save the pregnant person’s life, since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Constitutional amendments need 90,704 signatures to qualify for the ballot. AFLG said it submitted a total of 101,525 signatures and met the qualifying minimum of 3% of voters in 53 counties. A 2023 state law being challenged in court requires signatures be collected from at least 50 counties, an increase from 15.
Sponsors of proposed ballot measures can be allowed more time — the “cure period” — to submit additional signatures if the initial submission contains valid signatures from registered voters equal to at least 75% of the overall required number of signatures and 75% of the required number from at least 50 counties.
Griffin’s motion to dismiss said AFLG is not entitled to a cure period.
In Tuesday’ night’s order, Chief Justice Dan Kemp and Justices Karen Baker and Courtney Hudson said they would have ordered Thurston to perform an initial count of signatures and a verification analysis in accordance with state law and provide the finding to the state Supreme Court by 3 p.m. Monday
Kemp, Baker and Hudson said they also would have granted in part the motion for emergency relief and granted the petitioner a 30-day provisional cure period to commence on the date of the order (July 23). Additionally, they said a briefing schedule, decision on motion to dismiss and appointment of a special master for fact-finding, if necessary, would have followed the court’s receipt of the findings Thurston’s review.
The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.
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