Arkansas’ Secretary of State on Wednesday rejected a right-to-abortion ballot measure that would have guaranteed access to the procedure in the state up to 18 weeks into pregnancy.
in Letter to Arkansas calling for limited government Secretary of State John Thurston, whose organization is behind the effort, said the group has not filed required statements about people who were paid to collect signatures.
The group announced last Friday that it had collected more than 100,000 signatures, surpassing the 90,704 needed to put the state constitutional amendment on the ballot.
The proposed bill would amend the Arkansas Constitution to explicitly prohibit the state from “prohibiting, penalizing, delaying or restricting the provision of abortion services” in any circumstances up to 18 weeks into a pregnancy.
Arkansas currently bans all abortions unless they are necessary to save the patient’s life.
Thurston said the group has not issued a statement confirming that canvassers were given the proper paperwork and a summary of state law before signature gathering began.
“In contrast, other public initiative petition proponents have complied with this requirement. I must therefore reject your proposal,” he wrote.
Arkansas Limited Government said it emailed the statement more than 10 times and asked for time to provide the office with a hard copy.
Thurston argued that of the 101,525 signatures submitted, 14,143 were collected by paid canvassers, but the remaining 87,832 volunteer signatures were more than 3,300 short of the minimum.
“Thus, even if we were able to accept your petition, we would be forced to determine that it is insufficient on its face because it did not collect the required 90,704 signatures,” he wrote.
group, In a statement on Wednesdaysaid it was “surprised and outraged” by Thurston’s letter. The group said it worked with the Secretary of State’s office to ensure all rules and regulations were followed.
“To date, we have had no reason not to trust that the documentation they provided is correct and complete,” the group said, adding: “Under Arkansas law, the Secretary of State does not have the authority to make unfounded legal interpretations, and the Secretary of State did just that today by simply declaring that we have not completed the disqualification process.”
State constitutional amendments to protect abortion access could be on the ballot this year in as many as 11 states, including Colorado, Missouri and Florida. Five states have confirmed they will appear on the ballot, and others are in various stages of moving forward with similar measures.
Arizona and Nebraska similarly announced earlier this month that they had gathered enough signatures to put abortion rights bills on state ballots.
