(AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s rejection of signed petitions for an abortion rights ballot initiative on Thursday, keeping the proposal from going before voters in November.
The ruling dashed the organizers’ hopes of getting the constitutional amendment measure onto the ballot in the predominantly Republican state, where many top leaders promote their opposition to abortion.
Election officials said Arkansans for Limited Government failed to comply with state law primarily because it submitted documentation regarding paid signature gatherers separately and not in a single bundle.
A dissenting justice wrote that the decision strips Arkansans’ of their rights and effectively changes the state’s initiative law.
Arkansas currently bans abortion at any time during a pregnancy, unless the woman’s life is endangered due to a medical emergency.
Election officials said it could not determine whether 912 of the signatures came from volunteer or paid canvassers.
Supporters of the measure said they followed the law with their documentation, including identifying each paid gatherer.
They have also argued the abortion petitions are being handled differently than other initiative campaigns this year, pointing to similar filings by two other groups.
A small town in Arkansas. (AP) — On Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the state’s denial of signed petitions for a ballot initiative supporting abortion rights, preventing the idea from being presented to voters in November.
In the largely Republican state, where many prominent leaders advocate for their opposition to abortion, the decision crushed the organizers’ hopes of getting the constitutional amendment measure on the ballot.
Election officials stated that Arkansans for Limited Government’s failure to abide by state law was mainly due to the fact that the organization submitted its records about paid signature gatherers one at a time rather than all at once. The group contended that it ought to have been granted an extension of time to furnish any supplementary documents that were required.
According to Justice Rhonda Wood’s 4-3 majority opinion, “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” as required by law.
A dissenting justice claimed that the ruling effectively modifies the state’s initiative law and violates the rights of Arkansans.
The chief justice candidate challenging Wood, Justice Karen Baker, wrote, “Why are the respondent and the majority determined to keep this particular vote from the people?”. “It is not the proper function of this court to change the law to deny voters the chance to vote on this issue, as the majority has succeeded in doing. “.
after the U. S. After the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling eliminating the federal right to an abortion, there has been a push for state-by-state voter decision-making.
Currently, abortion is illegal in Arkansas at any point during a pregnancy, unless a medical emergency puts the woman’s life in danger.
A law prohibiting abortion during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy would have been rendered unconstitutional by the proposed amendment, which would have permitted the procedure later on in situations involving rape, incest, threats to the woman’s life or health, or situations in which the fetus was not expected to live to birth. It wouldn’t have established an abortion right under the constitution.
Since the proposed ballot would have continued to allow abortion to be prohibited after 20 weeks—earlier than in other states where it is still legal—national abortion rights organizations like Planned Parenthood did not support it.
The more than 101,000 signatures that were turned in by the state’s deadline of July 5th would have been sufficient to get them on the ballot if they had all been confirmed. Ninety,704 signatures from voters who were registered to vote and from at least 50 counties met the requirements.
Election officials stated that volunteers for the campaign gathered 87,675 of the signatures that were turned in in a previous court filing. Election officials stated that they were unable to identify whether 912 of the signatures were obtained by paid or volunteer canvassers. The majority of the court decided that only signatures obtained by volunteers that did not meet the threshold could be counted.
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin, speaking on behalf of the secretary of state’s office, declared in a statement that “this is a win for the rule of law in Arkansas and for those who have followed the rules for years to participate in the state’s ballot initiative process.”.
Election officials and Arkansans for Limited Government disagreed about whether the petitions followed a 2013 state law that required campaigns to confirm that paid canvassers were informed of the rules for gathering signatures and to identify each one by name.
Proponents of the proposal claimed that their documentation, which included identifying each paid gatherer, complied with legal requirements. Citing identical filings by two other groups, they have further maintained that the abortion petitions are being treated differently than other initiative campaigns this year.
According to state documents, the abortion campaign did, in fact, file a signed affidavit on June 27. It contained a list of paid canvassers as well as a declaration stating that the petition’s guidelines had been explained to them. The July 5 submission also contained affidavits from all paid employees attesting to the fact that the organization gave them all legally-mandated guidelines and instructions.
Since the signature on this paperwork came from the canvassing company and not the initiative campaign, the state claimed in court that it did not comply. About that matter, the court made no rulings.
To ensure that “the Secretary has all the necessary information together and organized when he begins the process,” the majority on Thursday said that the statement also needed to be submitted in one package. “.
The court declared that 74 of the paid gatherers employed by the abortion campaign were not covered by the June 27 filing.
Chief Justice Dan Kemp dissented from the ruling, stating that the court ought to have mandated that the state count every signature and designated a special master to examine the contested facts.
He penned, “This case presents an anomaly in Arkansas jurisprudence.”.
