Petition circulator sponsors have initiated legal proceedings at the U.S. Supreme Court against Arkansas Secretary of State over ballot initiatives that were disqualified last week.
Arkansas Voters First and Open Primaries Arkansas filed an emergency petition on July 17 asking SCOTUS to rule that Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston rejected their petitions for an invalid reason, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.
In their initiative, Open Primaries proposed creating non-partisan voting based on rank while the Arkansas Voters First initiative would impact redistricting for House and Senate candidates, according to media reports.
The two litigants are among three petition circulators whose signatures were deemed ineligible for November’s election due to alleged errors in certifying the background checks of canvassers. The third ballot initiative involved casinos.
“Based on what the Secretary thought the law was, they were disqualified because they had not certified they had passed a background check,” a source who asked not to be identified told Legal Newsline. “The Supreme Court’s ruling will set procedure on how the office of the Secretary of State proceeds and how petition circulators will proceed. The initiatives still could be on the November ballot if the Supreme Court says uncertified background checks is not a valid reason to kick them off.”
Open Primaries, Arkansas Voters First and their counsel, Adam Butler, did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Ark. Code Ann. 7-9-601(b)(1-5), which governs the hiring of paid signature gatherers, requires the following:
b) (1) To verify that there are no criminal offenses on record, a sponsor shall obtain, at its cost, from the Department of Arkansas State Police, a current state and federal criminal record search on every paid canvasser to be registered with the Secretary of State.
(2) The criminal record search shall be obtained within thirty (30) days prior to the registration of the paid canvasser.
(3) Upon submission of its list of paid canvassers to the Secretary of State, the sponsor shall certify to the Secretary of State that each paid canvasser in its employ has passed a criminal background search in accordance with this section.
(4) A willful violation of this section by a sponsor or paid canvasser constitutes a Class A misdemeanor.
(5) Signatures incorrectly obtained or submitted under this section shall not be counted by the Secretary of State.
The deadline to file signatures was July 6. According to the source, all three initiative sponsors adequately met the deadline but it was determined there was an error as to background checks.
“They all thought they had enough signatures but all three knew they were cutting it real close with what they were turning in,” the source said. “They turned in between 92,000 and 97,000 signatures. Even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the sponsors, it’s not certain yet they have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.”
Secretary Thurston declined to comment.