Ballot committees sue secretary of state

LITTLE ROCK — Two ballot committees promoting constitutional amendments on changing elections for most state offices and the method used for redistricting on Friday asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to compel Secretary of State John Thurston to begin counting the signatures submitted in their bids to qualify the proposals for the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

The two committees also asked the state’s high court to order the Republican secretary of state to provide them with more time — at least 30 days — to collect more signatures to qualify their proposals for the ballot.

The Arkansas Voters First committee is promoting the proposal to overhaul legislative and congressional redistricting.

The Open Primaries Arkansas committee is promoting the proposal to require ranked- choice voting for most state offices.

On behalf of the two committees and individually, Bonnie Miller of Fayetteville, chairwoman of Arkansas Voters First, filed the petition.

It asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to enter a preliminary and permanent injunction to order Thurston to count the signatures and grant extra time for circulating petitions.

Thurston announced Tuesday because of an error regarding criminal background checks, the petitions for three proposed constitutional amendments — on redistricting, elections and casino licenses — are insufficient to qualify for the general election ballot.

Thurston explained his decisions in letters Tuesday.

Letters went to attorney David Couch, regarding the redistricting and rankedchoice elections.

The third letter went to attorney Todd Wooten, representing the Arkansas Wins in 2020 committee, which collected signatures for the proposal that would authorize 16 more casinos in Arkansas.

In his two letters to Couch, Thurston said the list of paid canvassers who solicited signatures for the two petitions was accompanied by the following certification: “On behalf of the sponsors, this statement and submission of names serves as certification that a statewide Arkansas State Police background check, as wells as, 50-state criminal background check have been timely acquired in the 30 days before the first day the Paid canvasser begins to collect signatures as required by Act 1104 of 2017.”

Thurston wrote to Couch acquiring a criminal background check isn’t the same as passing one.

“Because Arkansas Voters First did not comply with Ark. Code Ann. 7-9-601(b)(3), none of the signatures solicited by the paid canvassers may be counted for any purpose,” he said. “Thus, the petition is insufficient to qualify for the November 3, 2020 general election ballot.”

Thurston wrote his office was barred under state law from counting the submitted signatures.

In their petition filed with the Supreme Court on Friday, the Arkansas Voters First and the Open Primaries Arkansas committees said they submitted their respective, timely and valid petitions with the requisite accompanying signatures to the secretary of state July 6, before Thurston declared the petitions insufficient Tuesday and refused to count any signatures they provided.

The two committees said Thurston’s summation of the certifications provided by paid canvassers is “conveniently incomplete.

The committees argued in their filing the certifications for the canvassers were in compliance with Arkansas Code Annotated 7-9-601.

Thurston’s refusal to count any of the committees’ signatures violates Arkansas Code Annotated 7-9-126, the two committees said.

They said the secretary of state’s position is “disingenuous and contrary to his position with regard to the counting of signatures in support of Safe Surgery Arkansas in Arkansas for Healthy Eyes v. Thurston, Arkansas Supreme Court Case … in which the secretary of state counted signatures with the same certification.

“Said contradictory approaches reflect that, rather than fulfill the duties of his job, the secretary of state has instead decided to rely upon sophistry in an attempt to thwart the statewide initiative process,” the two committees said.

Thurston spokesman Chris Powell said Friday “due to pending litigation, we do not have a comment at this time.”

Thurston’s rulings on the redistricting, open primary and casino ballot proposals came a day after a special master appointed by the state Supreme Court concluded the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee proposing a Nov. 3 referendum on a state law allowing optometrists to do a broader range of eye surgeries didn’t submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The effort fell short because of the terminology used to certify that some paid canvassers for the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee passed criminal background checks, and that invalidated the names they collected, the special master’s report said Monday.

The Supreme Court appointed retired Circuit Judge Mark Hewett in April as a special master to determine some questions of fact raised in a lawsuit filed in late February by the Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee. The committee is trying to stop the proposed referendum from being placed on the ballot.

The state’s high court, after reviewing Hewett’s report, will make its own decision.

The Arkansas Voters First’s proposed redistricting amendment would shift the authority for redrawing the boundaries of legislative districts from the state Board of Apportionment — comprising the governor, attorney general and secretary of state — to a nine-member independent commission comprising three Democrats, three Republicans and three independents.

The proposal also would shift authority for redrawing the boundaries of the congressional districts from the Legislature to the nine-member commission. The boundaries of legislative and congressional districts are redrawn once a decade, after the census.

Under the Open Primaries Arkansas committee’s rankedchoice proposal, candidates for Congress, the General Assembly and constitutional offices would run in an open primary against other candidates for those offices, regardless of party.