Arkansas Secretary of State rejects abortion amendment ballot petitions

[LiberalArkie]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston said Wednesday that his office is rejecting the petitions submitted by a group looking to add an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution.

Officials with the secretary of state’s office said there was a technicality regarding canvassers that led to the submissions being disqualified.

On Friday, the group Arkansans for Limited Government announced that they had secured more than 100,000 petition signatures from 54 counties for the ballot initiative trying to get the amendment before voters in November.

In a letter sent by Thurston to Arkansans for Limited Government, the secretary said the group had failed to submit a statement identifying paid canvassers by name and a signed statement noting that they had given paid canvassers documents outlining rules before they started gathering signatures.

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https://www.kark.com/news/your-local-election-hq/arkansas-secretary-of-state-rejects-abortion-amendment-ballot-petitions/


I kind of guessed this would happen as no national group was willing to help as they thought it wasn't worth the effort to try and get signatures.

[LiberalArkie]

1. Official statement from Arkansans for Limited Government on the Sec. of State's disqualification attempt

"Arkansans for Limited Government is alarmed and outraged by Secretary Thurston’s attempt to disqualify the Arkansas Abortion Amendment from November’s ballot. We worked with the Secretary of State’s office during every step of the process to ensure that we followed all rules and regulations. At multiple junctures — including on July 5 inside of the Capitol Building — we discussed signature submission requirements with the Secretary of State’s staff.

In fact, the Secretary of State’s office supplied us with the affidavit paperwork, which we used. Until today, we had no reason not to trust that the paperwork they supplied us was correct and complete. The Secretary of State, and the public, knows that we provided the state with a list of our paid canvassers and all of the required information associated with their employment.

They know this because the list we provided to the Secretary of State was FOIA’d and released by our opposition in an attempt to intimidate our supporters. Asserting now that we didn’t provide required documentation regarding paid canvassers is absurd and demonstrably, undeniably incorrect. Arkansas law does not empower the Secretary of State to make an unfounded legal interpretation, which is what he did today by summarily declaring that we have not completed the steps for qualification.

We are owed a period to provide a hard copy of the statement, which has been emailed to their office more than a dozen times, if that is what’s needed. More than 101,000 Arkansans participated in this heroic act of direct democracy and stood up to loudly proclaim their support for access to healthcare. They deserve better than a state government that seeks to silence them. We will fight this ridiculous disqualification attempt with everything we have. We will not back down."