Canvassers Down to Last Days to Collect Voter Signatures Across At Least 50 Counties

"The plan is to be collecting signatures up to the very last minute and get them notarized," said Rebecca Barlow, a consultant representing Arkansans for Limited Government, the ballot issue group seeking to cement women's access to abortion in the state constitution.

 

"Everyone is feeling like we’re within striking distance. It's not guaranteed by any means by any chance. But we feel like we can do it. We just need every single signature we can get in the next week," Barlow said.

 

To succeed at putting constitutional amendments on the November ballot for voters to decide, ballot issue groups need signatures from at least 90,704 registered voters. State laws require at least 72,563 voter signatures. A certain percentage of those signatures must come from at least 50 of the state's 75 counties. Arkansas has 1.7 million registered voters, but one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the United States.

 

Several opponents to 2024 proposals have urged voters to "Decline to Sign." Ballot issue sponsors say that move is noticeably different than past years.

 

"I think the Decline to Sign - it has taken money that was donated with intent to address one of the ballot issues, specifically education, and ... has been used by some of the associated committees to undermine and attack citizen-led democracy across the board and that’s wrong," said Nate Bell, one of several leaders of two proposals to enshrine public meeting and record access laws in the state constitution. 

 

As of Thursday, Bell said he didn't know how many signatures they had for the Arkansas Government Disclosure amendment and act. Arkansans for Transparency and Arkansans for a Free Press, the two registered ballot issue committees, have used a mixture of paid canvassers and volunteers across the state to approach voters for their signatures.

 

Signing petitions helps ballot issues make it to the ballot for voters to decide and is not a reflection of how a person will vote.

 

Representatives for proposals to expand medical marijuana and to solidify children's' educational rights in the state constitution said they also are making a big push this week to meet the signature requirements.

 

"We feel good. We have over 1,000 volunteers just busting their tails across the state and we’re thankful for them. We have events in almost every county this weekend," said Bill Kopsky, director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and member of the For AR Kids ballot issue committee.

 

Kopsky said the legislature's new 50-county requirement for signatures shouldn't be an issue for his group, but that to have standing to sue to overturn the requirement as unconstitutional will require one group to fall short of the new law.

 

"We're hoping to not be that group," he said.

 

Closing time on July 5 is the deadline for ballot issue groups to turn in their signatures to the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office. Ballot issue groups will be unloading boxes and boxes of petitions throughout the day at the Arkansas Capitol next Friday.

 

Dozens of temporary workers will help the Secretary of State's Office determine whether petitions are all notarized and meet the signature count before they will then start screening them to remove duplicate or invalid signatures. It will take several weeks to determine whether groups qualify for the November ballot. The Secretary of State must provide county election officials the official ballot by Aug. 22.