Arkansas Secretary of State counts more than 87K signatures for proposed abortion amendment

[RandySF]

The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office counted 87,675 signatures collected by unpaid volunteers in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a limited right to abortion, according to a sworn affidavit filed Thursday with the Arkansas Supreme Court.

The court had ordered the secretary of state to count the signatures after the ballot question committee supporting the Arkansas Abortion Amendment filed a complaint seeking the court ruling. The high court gave the state until Monday to complete the count.

The next steps will be up to the Supreme Court because it has not ruled on other aspects of the ballot question committee’s complaint nor on Attorney General Tim Griffin’s motion to dismiss the complaint.

Proposed amendments need 90,704 signatures from registered voters to qualify for the statewide November ballot. Arkansans for Limited Government, the ballot question committee supporting the amendment, said it submitted 101,525 signatures to Secretary of State John Thurston’s office on the July 5 deadline.......

Lauren Cowles, AFLG’s executive director, filed a complaint with the Arkansas Supreme Court on July 16, asking the court to order Thurston to count the signatures. Cowles said the ballot question committee did in fact submit the required accompanying documents to Thurston’s office multiple times, including on July 5.



https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/07/25/arkansas-secretary-of-state-counts-more-than-87k-signatures-for-proposed-abortion-amendment/

[magicarpet]

1. What about counting the collected signatures gathered by the paid signature collectors.

Is there a law currently on the books that states paid signature gathers collected signatures for a citizen's initiative are void if the signature gathers are paid to collect those signatures ?

If no such law is currently on the books - count the signatures gathered by the paid signature collectors too and add that number to the grand total.

The Christo-Fascists do not want abortion to be legal in any shape or form. They will fudge the numbers to keep abortion illegal.

[LiberalArkie]

2. In Arkansas it isn't just the abortion petition, they do not want any citizen initiative at all.

Usually only the petitions submitted by the Republican legislature are ever approved to be on the ballot.

[magicarpet]

3. If they refuse to count the signatures of the paid signature gatherers maybe the American Civil Liberties Union should,.

.... be contacted to ascertain that they have legal grounds to void or refuse to count the signatures collected by the paid signature collectors.

This sounds fishy that all signatures were not added to the grand total but some cast aside.

[TomSlick]

4. Exactly!

Regnat Populus my ass.