Arkansas Supreme Court Rejects Abortion Initiative

August 22, 2024 Politics, Republicans

The Associated Press reports:

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.

From the my report last month:

Arkansans for Limited Government released a statement: “Arkansans for Limited Government is alarmed and outraged by Secretary Thurston’s attempt to disqualify the Arkansas Abortion Amendment from November’s ballot. We worked with the Secretary of State’s office during every step of the process to ensure that we followed all rules and regulations.

“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.”

As I said last month, it appears that the office of Secretary of State John Thurston [photo] deliberately withheld the above-cited rule about petition bundling. Thurston was a pastor before entering politics.



Tags

© joemygod.com 2025