Arkansas Rejects Abortion Rights Amendment Petition on Technicality

The Arkansas secretary of state said that the group collecting signatures to put an abortion-rights amendment on the ballot had failed to submit some of the necessary paperwork.

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Boxes of signatures supporting a proposed ballot measure to increase abortion access in Arkansas were delivered to the State Capitol in Little Rock last Friday.

The Arkansas secretary of state on Wednesday rejected an effort to put an abortion-rights amendment on the ballot this November, saying the campaign had failed to submit some of the necessary paperwork.

Less than a week ago, organizers said they had successfully submitted more than 101,000 signatures in support of the effort, a few thousand more than the required minimum. Last Friday, the day of the deadline, they triumphantly dropped off boxes of petitions, cheering in the halls of the State Capitol.

But in a letter on Wednesday, John Thurston, the secretary of state, said the group had failed to submit a sworn statement both identifying paid canvassers by name and confirming that those canvassers had been properly educated on how to collect signatures.

“The first part of our review is to ensure that the sponsor has complied with all statutory requirements for submitting a petition,” Mr. Thurston wrote. “Because you failed at this first step, it is my duty to reject your submission.”

Mr. Thurston added that if he had eliminated the signatures collected by paid canvassers, that would have dropped the total signatures to 87,382, below the mandated 90,704 minimum.

A spokeswoman for the group, Arkansans for Limited Government, said its legal team was reviewing the letter.

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