Arkansas Supreme Court Orders State To Count All Disputed Medical Marijuana Ballot Signatures After Threat Of Lawsuit
The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered the Secretary of State to resume counting approximately 18,000 disputed signatures for Issue 3, a proposed amendment to expand the state’s medical marijuana program.
The Supreme Court’s ruling comes as a preliminary injunction in the ongoing legal battle. Arkansans for Patient Access (APA) sued the state on Tuesday after Secretary of State John Thurston declared the group fell 2,664 signatures short of the amount needed to qualify for the November ballot.
Court Decision Bolsters APA’s Fight For Ballot Inclusion
On Wednesday, the state’s highest court intervened, instructing Thurston to “immediately begin verifying the (~18,000) remaining signatures submitted during the cure period until the 90,704 threshold or just beyond is met.” The court set a deadline of Friday for Thurston to file a report on the verification process, according to the Arkansas Times.
The conflict centers on Thurston’s refusal to count signatures collected during the cure period, alleging that required certifications were signed by representatives of the canvassing company rather than the measure’s sponsors, violating state law. However, APA contends that delegating such duties to agents has been an accepted practice. “It would be fundamentally unfair for the secretary’s newly ‘discovered’ position to be imposed on APA at the eleventh hour of the signature collection process,” the group stated in its filing, as reported by the Arkansas Times.
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