Martin: Petition ruling by special judge faulty

Brief backs foes of wage-raise issue

Secretary of State Mark Martin agreed with opponents of the the state’s minimum wage ballot initiative Thursday, saying the special judge in the case erred in ruling that petitions with forged notary signatures should be counted.

In a brief filed with the state Supreme Court, an attorney for the secretary of state’s office, A.J. Kelly, argued that the high court’s appointed master, Judge John Robbins, was only supposed to “find facts.”

Instead, Robbins declared that the 8,501 signatures on petitions with forged notari- zations should be counted.

“The Master, in his ‘findings,’ went further than purely factual determinations, and … concluded that the cure period was properly granted,” Kelly wrote. “The Master made erroneous conclusions of law, which this Court should review. … [The conclusions] are improper and beyond the scope of his authority.”

Attorneys for the sponsor of the wage increase, Give Arkansas a Raise Now, argued that Robbins findings should stand because they dealt with matters of fact, were not “clearly erroneous” and did not contravene “common sense.”

The Supreme Court directed Robbins to evaluate the allegations made in a Sept. 22 suit that signatures on petitions with illegible ballot language, as well as the signatures on ballots that had forged notary signatures, should have been tossed out.

The ballot initiative seeks to gradually raise the state’s hourly minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.50 by Jan. 1, 2017. The suit challenging the measure was filed by Jackson Stephens Jr., son of the co-founder of Stephens Inc.

Give Arkansas a Raise Now submitted more than 72,000 signatures to Martin’s office on July 7, but nearly 8,000 were invalidated because of illegible ballot language on the petitions.

But th e gr oup had enough signatures to win a 30-day “cure period” to either address flaws in their petitions or gather more signatures.

Ultimately, the group garnered more than enough valid signatures, and the initiative was certified and placed on the ballot.

Since Robbins found that 8,501 of the signatures were on petitions with forged notarization, they shouldn’t have been counted, according to Stephens’ attorney David Sterling.

If those signatures hadn’t been counted, Give Arkansas a Raise Now wouldn’t have qualified for the 30day extension that ultimately enabled them to collect enough signatures to reach the ballot.

Robbins recommended that the petitions with improper notarization be counted, f inding no evidence that the petition signers’ names had been forged.

Sterling argued that Martin’s office shouldn’t have allowed those signatures to be counted and that they should be stripped from the ballot’s initial tally.

Attorney for Give Arkansas a Raise Now, David Couch, argued that the forged notarizations were “curable” and could have been addressed during the 30- day extension, and he pointed out that his group went on to gather more than 100,000 signatures; 89,790 were certified as valid.

Arguments that the first batch of signatures was submitted late now appear moot. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the secretary of state had the authority to extend the deadline because it fell on a legal holiday.

The court will not hear oral arguments in the minimum wage case and hasn’t said when it will issue a ruling.