United States: The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that an abortion-rights amendment was not qualified for the November ballot while agreeing to the fact that state officials, which insisted on the effort, had failed to file all the essential paperwork.
More about the news
The measure looked certain to go forward last month when promoters said they collected more than 101,000 signatures supporting it, enough to qualify for the ballot under the state’s constitution.
However, the secretary of state, John Thurston, dismissed the petition, arguing that the organizers did not correctly present a sworn statement that paid canvassers were trained on how to obtain the signatures.
The group calling for the measure, Arkansans for Limited Government, sued to reinstate the petition and get state officials to tally the signatures.
Even though the court insisted on obtaining the number of signatures gathered by the unpaid volunteers, which was 87,675, according to Mr. Thurston’s office, the total was insufficient, as the New York Times reported.
On Thursday, the court affirmed Mr. Thurston’s decision to dismiss the petition. The Supreme Court was also able to dismiss the group’s assertion that it was entitled, under Arkansas law, to an additional thirty days to make up for the shortfall.
The majority statement
The majority statement stated, “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 the New York Times reported.
As a result of the effort to get the support of the moderates and classic liberals in the state, Arkansans for Limited Government came up with a ballot proposal that was not as extreme as in some of the other states.
Current law permits abortion only in cases of risk to the woman’s life due to medical complications; the legislation would have permitted abortion up to eighteen weeks of fertilization and other circumstances of incest, rape, or if the fetus is likely to survive outside the womb.
The majority opinion came on the deadline day when the state officials had to finalize the November ballot.
Three of the seven justices were Chief Justice John Dan Kemp, along with Justices Karen R. Baker and Courtney Hudson, who dissented.
According to Mr. Thurston, “During the electoral process, my staff maintained the highest professional standards and did not allow partisan politics or misinformation to deter them from their duty to comply with the law,” as the New York Times reported.
“I am dedicated to my calling to serve Arkansans and will continue to do so,” he added.