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arkansas
'Infuriating': Arkansas Supreme Court Disqualifies Abortion Amendment From Ballot
"This effort has generated a wave of fiercely engaged Arkansas women," said one organizer. "We are outraged. We will not back down. And we will remember this in November."
Aug 22, 2024
Abortion rights defenders in Arkansas said Thursday it was "a dark day" after the state's Supreme Court ruled a ballot measure that would enshrine stronger reproductive rights protections for people in the state was ineligible for November election ballots.
The court ruled 4-3 in favor of arguments presented by Republican officials including Secretary of State John Thurston and Attorney General Tim Griffin, who said organizers with Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG)—which submitted more than 101,000 signatures to secure the amendment for the ballot—had failed to correctly submit paperwork verifying that paid canvassers had been properly trained.
AFLG strategy director Rebecca Bobrow expressed agreement with Justice Karen Baker's dissent, which accused Thurston of making up statutory requirements "out of whole cloth" and of being "determined to keep this particular vote from the people" at all costs.
AFLG proposed an amendment that would have allowed people in Arkansas to obtain abortion care up to 18 weeks after fertilization, with additional exceptions for incest, rape, and fetal anomalies that would make it impossible for a fetus to survive after birth. Arkansas currently has one of the strictest abortion bans in the U.S., with abortion care allowed only in medical emergencies.
When Thurston rejected the group's petition last month, saying it had failed to submit an official statement regarding the training of its paid canvassers, AFLG sued to force the state to count all the signatures, which surpassed the 90,704 that were needed for the ballot initiative to be approved.
About 14,000 of the group's signatures were collected by paid canvassers, so the number of signatures gathered by unpaid volunteers—87,675—fell below the threshold.
As the Arkansas Times reported, the secretary of state's handbook on petitions states that an affidavit certifying that canvassers received training is a requirement for submitting petitions—but the three dissenting justices on Thursday wrote "that the actual statutory language appears to show that the paperwork oversight should not be fatal to the group's effort. And the handbook cannot overrule the law."
"Despite collecting signatures from more than 100,000 Arkansans—and despite the fact that the plain language of the statutes appeared to show that the review process for the petition should have continued—the court ruled that paperwork omission was fatal to the group's effort," wrote David Ramsey and Matt Campbell at the Arkansas Times. "For those following the case, this has always been the fear: Even if the law was on their side, the majority of the court opposes abortion. Ultimately the law is what the Supreme Court says it is. Among the grab-bag of flimsy arguments offered by Attorney General Tim Griffin, they found a couple they could stretch to suit the purpose of disqualifying the abortion petition."
Baker wrote in her dissent that "the majority has succeeded in its efforts to change the law in order to deprive the voters of the opportunity to vote on this issue, which is not the proper role of this court."
Compared to other ballot initiatives, she added, Thurston and the court's right-wing majority treated the abortion right amendment "differently for the sole purpose of preventing the people from voting on this issue."
Ramsey and Campbell wrote that AFLG could theoretically file a lawsuit in federal court challenging the ruling.
"But for procedural and timing reasons, that is extremely unlikely to help," they wrote. "In all likelihood, it's over: Citizens will not have the opportunity to vote to restore abortion rights in November."
Arkansas state Sen. Greg Leding (D-30) called the ruling "maddening and heartbreaking" and urged voters to consider abortion rights when they cast their ballots in November, regardless of whether the amendment is on ballots.
Bobrow told supporters that AFLG's fight "isn't over" despite the "infuriating" decision.
"We can't—and won't—rest until Arkansas women have access to safe, standard healthcare and the autonomy to make decisions about their bodies free from governmental interference," said Bobrow. "This effort has generated a wave of fiercely engaged Arkansas women. We are outraged. We will not back down. And we will remember this in November."
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Arkansas Supreme Court Orders State to Count Abortion Rights Signatures
The limited ruling was called "a good start" by one pro-democracy group, as advocates hope to include an abortion rights amendment on November ballots.
Jul 24, 2024
Abortion rights advocates in Arkansas were cautiously optimistic Tuesday evening that the state government would count the signatures of more than 100,000 residents who signed petitions in support of an anti-forced pregnancy constitutional amendment, after the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a limited order calling on the secretary of state to begin the process.
Secretary of State John Thurston, a Republican, moved earlier this month to disqualify the petition that advocates had spent months gathering signatures for, claiming organizers had failed to provide information about paid signature-gatherers who had worked on the campaign run by Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG).
On Tuesday evening, the court ruled that Thurston must begin "the initial count of signatures collected by volunteer canvassers according to A.C.A. 7-9-126(a)," but said nothing about whether signatures gathered by paid workers needed to be counted.
The order did not indicate whether Thurston is required to begin the second stage of the tallying process, in which his team would verify that the signatures are accurate and belong to Arkansas voters.
That stage would begin a "cure" period during which AFLG would be allowed to continue collecting signatures.
"We are heartened by this outcome, which honors the constitutional rights of Arkansans to participate in direct democracy."
AFLG turned in more than 101,000 signatures in time for the July 5 deadline, including an estimated 87,382 that were collected by volunteers and 14,143 gathered by paid workers, according to the Arkansas Times.
The state requires a petition for a constitutional amendment to have at least 90,704 signatures to qualify for the November election ballots—so if Thurston is required to count only the signatures collected by volunteers and does not have to initiate the cure period, AFLG's petition may fall short.
The state Supreme Court did leave open the possibility of an additional ruling on the matter, saying the panel "reserves the right to issue further orders and proceed in accordance with state law."
Despite the uncertainty, AFLG said in a statement that "the will of the people won" this round of the fight to ensure Arkansas residents can vote for abortion rights in November.
"On behalf of 101,000 Arkansas voters, 800 volunteers, and the AFLG team, we thank the court for upholding democracy in Arkansas," said the group. "We are heartened by this outcome, which honors the constitutional rights of Arkansans to participate in direct democracy, the voices of 101,000 Arkansas voters who signed the petition, and the work of hundreds of volunteers across the state who poured themselves into this effort."
The amendment proposed by AFLG would state that the Arkansas government "shall not prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization" or in the cases of rape, incest, or "fatal fetal anomaly."
The pro-democracy group For AR People said the court's ruling was "a good start" and noted that at least three of the court's seven judges—Justices Courtney Hudson and Karen Baker and Chief Justice Dan Kemp—seemed "favorable to AFLG's arguments" that the count, the verification process, and the cure period should commence.
Matt Campbell of the Arkansas Times pointed out that AFLG could legally continue gathering signatures as they would during the cure period, before one officially begins.
"Just because a cure period was not explicitly granted doesn't mean AFLG cannot currently be gathering signatures," said Campbell. "The cure period just officially starts the clock, but signatures can be collected before that clock starts and still be valid."
AFLG said that although the matter is not entirely resolved, the court's decision was "reflective of our state motto: 'The People Rule.'"
"We look forward to that principle guiding the rest of the signature verification process," the group said.
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Arkansas Abortion Rights Organizers Vow to Fight 'Absurd' Rejection of Ballot Measure
"We will not back down," organizers of the initiative said in response to Republican Secretary of State John Thurston.
Jul 11, 2024
Reproductive rights advocates responded with outrage and vowed to fight after Arkansas' top election official on Wednesday moved to disqualify a proposed ballot initiative that—if approved by voters—would enshrine abortion access in the state's constitution.
Arkansans for Limited Government (ALG), the group behind the proposed constitutional amendment, refuted Republican Secretary of State John Thurston's claim that organizers failed to provide the state with a list of all paid canvassers who worked to gather petition signatures for the ballot measure, along with other required materials.
"We worked with the secretary of state's office during every step of the process to ensure that we followed all rules and regulations," ALG said in a statement responding to Thurston's letter to the group on Wednesday. "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," ALG added. "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."
Thurston claimed in his letter—which was immediately praised by anti-abortion lawmakers—that his staff counted 14,143 signatures gathered by paid canvassers, signatures that the official says should be tossed due to ALG's supposed failure to provide the state with a list of the canvassers.
If the 14,143 signatures collected by paid canvassers are subtracted from the 101,525 total signatures gathered by organizers, the abortion rights campaign would be left with 87,382 signatures. That's just over 3,300 short of the number required for a measure to appear on ballots in the GOP-led state, where abortion is almost completely banned.
"We will fight this ridiculous disqualification attempt with everything we have."
The proposed constitutional amendment, which would require just a simple-majority vote to pass, states that Arkansas officials "shall not prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization" or in the cases of rape, incest, or "fatal fetal anomaly." Other state ballot initiatives that—unlike Arkansas'—have received support from national reproductive rights groups would protect abortion access up to 24 weeks.
ALG—whose name, according toThe New York Times, represents "a bid to appeal to the state's libertarians and centrists"—said late Wednesday that "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," the group said. "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," ALG added. "We will not back down."
Arkansas is one of nearly a dozen states where an abortion rights initiative could be on the ballot in November.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion rights have won every time they've been on the ballot directly—even in reliably red states such as Kansas and Kentucky.
That winning streak has intensified right-wing efforts to prevent abortion rights initiatives from making it to the ballot.
The Associated Pressreported last month that tactics employed by anti-abortion groups and their GOP allies "include attempts to get signatures removed from initiative petitions, legislative pushes for competing ballot measures that could confuse voters, and monthslong delays caused by lawsuits over ballot initiative language."
"In South Dakota, lawmakers passed a bill allowing residents to withdraw their signatures on citizen-led petitions. This launched a comprehensive effort by anti-abortion groups to invalidate a proposed abortion rights ballot measure by encouraging endorsers to withdraw signatures," AP noted. "Meanwhile, opposition groups in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Nebraska have tried to create their own ballot amendments to codify existing abortion restrictions, though these efforts failed to gather enough signatures in Florida and Colorado."
In Arkansas, as The American Prospect's Gabrielle Gurley wrote Thursday, "canvassers had obtained almost 11,000 more signatures than state law required in 53 counties" even in the face of "verbal threats and doxxing that some of these activists had endured from abortion opponents."
"The campaign waged by the measure's opponents had featured all sorts of attempts to intimidate canvassers," Gurley added. "Opponents of the amendment had used the state's FOIA laws to find the addresses of the paid signature-gathers (ironically, a concurrent signature-gathering campaign to enshrine FOIA in the state constitution failed). Some canvassers were followed on their routes. One Little Rock police officer told canvassers that an order to move them off a public area where a food distribution was underway came from Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders."
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