The Arkansas Supreme Court has affirmed the state’s decision to reject signature petitions for a November ballot measure that aimed to enshrine expanded access to abortion in the state constitution. The ruling has been met with approval from pro-life organizations.
In a divided 4–3 decision on August 22, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Secretary of State John Thurston acted legally when he dismissed petition signatures collected by paid canvassers.
“We find that the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification,” the court’s majority opinion reads.
However, the justices denied Thurston’s request to dismiss the legal challenge to his decision on jurisdictional grounds. Dissenting justices argued that he should have provided a “provisional cure period” for the group behind the ballot initiative to address issues with the signature collection.
The decision follows Secretary of State John Thurston’s rejection in July of Arkansans for Limited Government’s (AFLG) petition for the ballot initiative. Thurston cited the group’s failure to meet the state’s requirements for paid signature collectors in his letter to the organization.
The now-defunct ballot initiative proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would