LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) — The state of Arkansas is being sued for rejecting petitions in favor of a proposed ballot measure to loosen the state’s abortion ban. Its supporters asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to order authorities to begin counting the more than 100,000 signatures of people supporting an amendment to the constitution.
The ballot bill would not make abortion a constitutionally protected right, but it would limit when abortion can be banned. Giving voters a say in the state’s ban would be a test of support for abortion rights in Arkansas, where high-ranking elected officials regularly express opposition to the procedure.
Had they all been verified, the signatures submitted on the petitions would have been enough to put the bill on the November ballot. The group Arkansans for Limited Government, which supports the proposed constitutional amendment, asked the court to overturn the state’s decision. The group also wants the court to order Secretary of State John Thurston’s office to carry out the count.
The Secretary of State’s office said on July 10 that the group had not filed required statements about the paid signature collectors it used. The group said the documents it submitted – including a list of collectors – met legal requirements.
“The Secretary’s wrongful rejection of the petitioners’ proposals prevents the people of Arkansas from exercising their right to accept or reject the amendment,” the group’s lawsuit states. “This court should correct the Secretary’s error and reaffirm Arkansas’ motto, Regnat Populus. The people rule.”
Thurston’s office said the lawsuit is currently under review and there was no immediate comment.
The proposed amendment would ban laws prohibiting abortions in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and allow later abortions in cases of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or when the fetus would likely not survive birth. Arkansas now bans abortions at any point during a pregnancy unless they are necessary to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency.
The ballot proposal did not gain support from national abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood because it would have allowed a ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, earlier than in other states where abortion is still legal.
The group submitted more than 101,000 signatures by the July 5 deadline. They needed at least 90,704 signatures from registered voters and a minimum number from 50 precincts.
Election officials cited a 2013 Arkansas state law that requires campaign teams to file statements identifying each paid poll worker and certifying that they have been explained the rules for collecting signatures.
State records show that the group filed a signed affidavit on June 27 with a list of its paid poll workers and a statement saying the petition rules had been explained to them. In addition, its July 5 filing included affidavits from all paid signature gatherers confirming that the initiative group had provided them with all the rules and regulations required by law.
The state claims that these documents do not meet the requirements because they were not signed by the initiative’s sponsor and because all of these documents were not submitted with the signed petitions. In the complaint, Arkansas for Limited Government stated that Thurston’s office assured the group on July 5 that it had submitted the required documents with its petitions.
Despite these disagreements, Arkansas law requires the group to be given the opportunity to submit all necessary documentation so the state can begin counting signatures, the group said.
The group’s lawsuit filed Tuesday said the state’s refusal to count the signatures anyway contradicted arguments the state itself had made in two previous ballot cases before the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights in 2022, sparking a nationwide push to let voters in each state decide the issue.
The representatives in the Republican-dominated parliament have approved the current law. Reinstating the petitions in court could be hard. The conservatives have the majority of seats in the seven-member Supreme Court of Arkansas.
Oscar Stilley, an attorney not affiliated with the abortion initiative, filed a separate lawsuit on Tuesday also seeking an overturn of the state’s decision on the petitions.
