The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered the state to start counting signatures for an abortion-rights measure, specifically those collected by volunteers for the campaign. The court’s one-page order, issued by the majority-conservative justices, has created uncertainty about the future of the proposed ballot measure as they did not rule on allowing a lawsuit challenging the state’s rejection of petitions to proceed. The state has been given until 9 a.m. Monday to conduct an initial count of the signatures gathered by volunteers.
On July 10, election officials claimed that Arkansans for Limited Government did not provide proper documentation for the signature gatherers it hired. The group contested this assertion, stating that the submitted documents were in compliance with the law and that they should have been given more time to provide any additional required documents. The group sued over the rejection, leading the state to seek dismissal of the lawsuit from the Supreme Court.
If all 101,000+ signatures submitted by the July 5 deadline were verified, they would have met the threshold of 90,704 signatures required from registered voters and a minimum of 50 counties to qualify for the ballot. The group expressed satisfaction with the court’s decision, emphasizing the importance of honoring Arkansans’ constitutional rights to participate in direct democracy.
Attorney General Tim Griffin welcomed the court’s order, pointing out that the signatures collected by paid canvassers did not meet all legal requirements, ultimately falling short of the minimum needed for the ballot measure. The proposed amendment does not establish abortion as a constitutional right but serves as a gauge of support for abortion rights in a predominantly Republican state where abortion is currently restricted to cases endangering the woman’s life due to a medical emergency.
The amendment would prevent laws prohibiting abortion within the first 20 weeks of gestation and allow the procedure later in instances of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or when the fetus is unlikely to survive birth. Disagreements between Arkansans for Limited Government and election officials centered around compliance with a 2013 state law mandating campaigns to submit statements identifying each paid canvasser by name and confirming that signature-gathering rules were explained to them.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 revoking the nationwide right to abortion, there has been a push for state-by-state voting on the matter.
