Arkansas secretary of state rejects abortion ballot measure on signature technicality

Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston announced Wednesday that he had disqualified a ballot measure which could have loosened abortion restrictions in the state.

Signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot were due on Friday, and Arkansans for Limited Government submitted 101,525, more than enough to meet the threshold of 90,704.

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In a letter, Thurston said that 14,135 of those had been collected by paid canvassers rather than volunteers.

Thurston said that Arkansans for Limited Government, the sponsoring committee of the Arkansas abortion amendment, had not submitted “a statement identifying the paid canvassers by name” or “a signed statement indicating that the sponsor has provided a copy of the most recent edition of the Secretary of State’s initiatives and referenda handbook and explained the requirements under Arkansas law for obtaining signatures on the petition to each paid canvasser before the paid canvasser solicited signatures.”

“Even if your failure to comply with (the law) did not require me to reject your submission outright, it would certainly mean that signatures gathered by paid canvassers in your submission could not be counted for any reason,” Thurston said.

Removing signatures collected by paid canvassers, he said, the committee would be 3,322 signatures short of the qualifying threshold.

“We worked with the Secretary of State’s office during every step of the process to ensure that we followed all rules and regulations,” said Rebecca Bobrow, director of strategy at Arkansans for Limited Government, in a written statement Wednesday night.

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“At multiple junctures — including on July 5 inside of the Capitol Building — we discussed signature submission requirements with the Secretary of State’s staff.”

“Until today, we had no reason not to trust that the paperwork (the Secretary of State’s office) supplied us was correct and complete,” Bobrow said.

“Asserting now that we didn’t provide required documentation regarding paid canvassers is absurd and demonstrably, undeniably incorrect.”

The amendment, if approved by voters, would have legalized abortion up to 18 weeks from fertilization, in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly and to save the health of the mother.

Abortion is currently illegal in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother.

According to the Arkansas Department of Health, zero abortions were performed in the state in 2023.

Arkansas is rated as the most abortion-restrictive state in the country by pro-life organizations, including Americans United for Life. Anti-abortion advocates, including many Republican state officials, praised the decision to throw out the measure.

“Today the far left pro-abortion crowd in Arkansas showed they are both immoral and incompetent,” Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

When asked what he would say to the 100,000 people who signed, Jerry Cox, president of the anti-abortion Family Council Action Committee, a vocal opponent of the measure, said that “100,000 is only 5% of the legal voters in Arkansas.”

“It is by no means any kind of a mandate,” he said.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, in a statement released on X, also praised the decision.

“The sponsors failed to follow the law, specifically a simple and straightforward affidavit requirement that other ballot committees followed,” he said. “Abortion advocates have no one to blame but themselves.”

Todd Price contributed reporting for this story.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas Secretary of State rejects signatures on abortion measure