An initial tally from election officials filed with the state Supreme Court revealed that signatures collected by volunteers for an Arkansas abortion-rights measure may fall short of the required number to qualify for the ballot. The court ordered officials to count only the signatures collected by volunteers, excluding those gathered by paid canvassers.
The Arkansas secretary of state's office reported that 87,675 signatures were collected by volunteers, which is below the 90,704 signature threshold needed from registered voters. An additional 912 signatures could not be definitively attributed to either paid canvassers or volunteers.
Organizers submitted over 101,000 signatures by the July 5 deadline in support of the proposal to amend Arkansas' abortion ban. However, state officials rejected the petitions shortly after, citing improper submission of documents related to paid canvassers.
The Arkansas Supreme Court is deliberating on whether to proceed with the abortion-rights campaign's lawsuit challenging the rejection. The next steps are pending a ruling on the state's request to dismiss the lawsuit.
If the total number of signatures from paid canvassers is included, the group believes the state can proceed with verifying the signatures. Attorney General Tim Griffin, on the other hand, stated that the count indicates the proposal cannot advance due to insufficient qualifying signatures.
The proposed amendment, if passed, would not establish abortion as a constitutional right but would serve as a gauge of support for abortion rights in Arkansas. Currently, the state prohibits abortion at any stage of pregnancy except in cases of a medical emergency endangering the woman's life.
The amendment would prevent laws banning abortion within the first 20 weeks of gestation and permit the procedure later in instances of rape, incest, threats to the woman's health or life, or if the fetus is unlikely to survive birth.
Disagreements arose between Arkansans for Limited Government and election officials regarding 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 2022 decision granting states the authority to regulate abortion, there has been a growing movement to address the issue through state-level voter decisions.
