Matthew Moore: After weeks of uncertainty, the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ruled voters will not get the chance to legalize abortion in this November’s election. To help us understand all the details, we talk with Josie Lenora, politics and government reporter for Little Rock Public Radio. Hello, Josie.
Josie Lenora: Hi, Matthew.
MM: So before we get into what the Supreme Court said, give us a little background. How did we get here?
JL: The saga of the Arkansas abortion amendment began several months ago. Canvassers began collecting signatures in late January and early February of this year. The amendment would have legalized abortion up to the 18th week of pregnancy. Proposed constitutional amendments need just over 90,000 signatures from 50 Arkansas counties to appear on the ballot, and that’s no small task for a grassroots movement.
The group behind the amendment, Arkansans for Limited Government, spent months collecting signatures. Then on July 5, they turned them all in to the secretary of state’s office. At the time, they said they had more than 100,000 signatures, which, in theory, was enough for them to qualify for the ballot. But shortly after that, Secretary of State John Thurston disqualified the amendment, saying they hadn’t submitted some required paperwork regarding paid canvassers. The group sued the state, saying they had submitted the paperwork, but the state still said the amendment should be disqualified because the paperwork hadn’t been signed by the right person. That lawsuit went to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which finally issued its opinion this week.
MM: Turning in a ballot measure involves a lot of paperwork. Which paperwork exactly did the secretary of state say was missing?
JL: Arkansans for Limited Government used a mix of volunteers and paid canvassers to collect signatures. Arkansas has certain requirements for paid canvassers, specifically that they’re trained on current election laws and given a copy of the secretary of state’s handbook explaining the initiative process. The group behind the amendment then has to turn in paperwork attesting to the fact that these paid canvassers have been provided training and the handbook and that paperwork has to be signed by the sponsor of the amendment.
And this is a key part of what we’re talking about today. For some paid canvassers, Arkansans for Limited Government just didn’t turn in the paperwork. For others, a representative of the company hired to provide paid canvassers signed the paperwork instead of the sponsor. The high court initially ruled that signatures collected by volunteers could be counted, but that wasn’t enough to put the group over the threshold to appear on the ballot. And what we were waiting on the Supreme Court to decide was whether or not the signatures from paid canvassers could still count toward the total, despite some of those errors in paperwork.
MM: At one point, people who are involved in two amendments who collected enough signatures to make it on the ballot this November got involved. What happened there?
JL: One of them is a group backing an amendment to legalize marijuana. They are not on the ballot but they got a 30-day cure period. The second is a group that tried and failed to put a casino in Pope County that is now trying to stop the county from erecting a casino. Both groups argued that they share a common interest in wanting to protect the direct democracy process. A representative of the casino amendment said he actually did not support abortion but did support people’s right to vote on the issue.
MM: The Supreme Court came to a decision last Thursday. What did they rule?
JL: The Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 that the paid canvasser signatures cannot be counted. Writing for the majority, Justice Rhonda Wood said the law is very clear about the requirements for paid canvassers, and that the burden is on the group behind the amendment to ensure that they’re following all state laws. Wood says it’s not the court’s job to ask another constitutional officer, in this case Secretary of State John Thurston, to ignore state law. But, important to note, they did not decide whether or not it was proper for someone other than the sponsor of the amendment to sign off on paperwork relating to paid canvassers.
MM: Justice Rhonda Wood wrote the majority opinion. Justice Karen Baker wrote a dissenting opinion. What did she say?
JL: She quoted the motto of Arkansas: “Regnat Populus—The People Rule.” Basically, she said that the court was giving different treatment to different ballot initiatives. She said, “The majority deliberately bypassed the issue concerning who has the authority to sign the certification even in light of the allegations of disparate treatment.” That was her big dissenting argument. And I’ve heard from Democrats that they are thinking about taking a political stance against her or challenging her.
MM: And it’s worth noting Justice Rhonda Wood and Justice Karen Baker are both running in November to be the next chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
JL: Yes, it’s a runoff election. Rhonda Wood is raising more money, but Karen Baker right now seems to have some momentum among a lot of Democrats.
MM: What have we heard from abortion rights supporters?
JL: Anger and disappointment. This was a massive effort to collect signatures over the past few months, and a lot of reactions I’ve seen are that this was a seemingly minor error that undid months of work. Here’s Rebecca Bobrow, a spokesperson for Arkansans for Limited Government.
“We are quite upset, I think understandably. We are feeling pretty outraged at this decision. I think the dissenting opinion captures really well that it feels like this was a decision made to prevent Arkansans from making their voices heard.”
MM: So what’s next?
JL: Well aside from starting the whole canvassing and certification process all over again, abortion rights activists say they hope to still channel some of the energy around the abortion amendment into other issues and races on the ballot. Rebecca Bobrow says the ruling will hopefully have an effect down-ballot, potentially impacting races featuring Secretary of State John Thurston and Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood.
“Secretary Thurston is running for a new position as [Arkansas treasurer], and one of the Supreme Court justices who ruled with the majority is running for chief justice. So despite whatever happens in terms of legal recourse for this cycle for November, we feel like there’s an opportunity here to create some political recourse.”
JL: Meanwhile, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders applauded the ruling, saying she was proud the court upheld “the rule of law and with it the right to life.” And outside of Arkansas, nine states will decide on abortion access at the ballot box this November.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The authoritative record of KUAF programming is the audio record.
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