Arkansas Supreme Court Upholds Rejection of Abortion Ballot Measure Due to Paperwork Error
The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld Secretary of State John Thurston’s rejection of a measure to establish a limited right to abortion in the Arkansas Constitution for the November ballot. The 4-3 decision was based on a paperwork error made by the sponsor of the measure, Arkansans for Limited Government. Thurston claimed that the group failed to file proper documentation in support of its 102,000-signature petition, disqualifying a portion of the signatures and the entire petition.
Despite the fact that two other groups made the same error but had their signatures counted, Arkansans for Limited Government alleged discrimination based on politics. Associate Justice Rhonda K. Wood wrote in the majority opinion that the Secretary was correct in refusing to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers due to the filing error.
The group fell short of the required 90,704 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot after the roughly 15,000 signatures collected by paid canvassers were rejected. A dissenting justice criticized the decision and accused Thurston and the majority of preventing voters from having a say on the issue.
Attorney General Tim Griffin hailed the decision as a win for the rule of law and the state’s ballot initiative process. The proposed constitutional amendment would have allowed abortion up to 18 weeks from conception in certain cases. Arkansans for Limited Government expressed outrage at the decision and vowed to continue fighting for the cause.
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