LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The signatures collected by volunteers for an abortion rights measure in Arkansas would fall short of the number needed to qualify for the ballot if those are the only ones counted, according to an initial tally by election officials filed Thursday with the state Supreme Court.
The complaint by the secretary of state’s office comes after the court ordered officials to begin counting submitted signatures, but only those collected by volunteers. Arkansans for Limited Government, which used both volunteer and paid canvassers, sued the state for rejecting its petitions.
The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office said it determined that 87,675 of the signatures were collected by volunteers, which would not meet the threshold of 90,704 registered voter signatures required to be eligible. The filing said it could not determine whether another 912 signatures were collected by paid canvassers or volunteers.
Organizers submitted more than 101,000 signatures by the July 5 deadline in support of the proposal to ease Arkansas’s abortion ban. But state officials rejected the petitions days later, saying the group failed to properly file paperwork about the paid canvassers it used.
The justices are considering whether to allow the abortion rights campaign that is challenging the dismissal of the petition to proceed. The next step for the justices is unclear, as they have not yet ruled on the state’s request to dismiss the abortion rights campaign’s complaint.
Arkansans for Limited Government said the initial count shows that if the full number of signatures from paid individuals and canvassers is counted, the state can move forward with verifying the validity of the signatures.
“Our optimism remains alive but cautious as we wait for the Arkansas Supreme Court to issue further guidance,” the group said.
Attorney General Tim Griffin, however, said the tally showed the process could not move forward on the proposal.
“The Secretary of State implemented the Arkansas Supreme Court’s order, did so ahead of schedule, and confirmed that abortion advocates had not filed enough qualifying signatures to meet the statutory threshold for a cure period,” Griffin said.
The proposed amendment, if approved, would not make abortion a constitutional right, but it is seen as a test of support for abortion rights in a predominantly Republican state. Arkansas currently prohibits abortion at any point in pregnancy unless the woman’s life is in danger due to a medical emergency.
The proposed amendment would ban laws prohibiting abortion in the first 20 weeks of gestation and would allow the procedure later in cases of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or if the fetus is unlikely to survive birth.
Arkansans for Limited Government and election officials disagreed over whether the petitions complied with a 2013 state law requiring campaigns to submit statements identifying each paid canvasser by name and confirming that the rules for collecting signatures had been explained to them.
Following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down abortion rights nationwide, efforts have been made to have voters decide the issue state by state.
