At least 100 people gathered in front of the Arkansas State Capitol Saturday in support of a proposal to expand abortion access.
This comes after members of Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG), the group behind a proposed abortion amendment, said they followed Arkansas law while gathering signatures and claimed Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston unlawfully rejected their submission last week. The group had announced they had secured more than 100,000 petition signatures from 54 counties, trying to get the amendment before voters in November. Thurston said the group had failed to turn in required documents regarding paid canvassers.
According to AFLG, the proper documents were submitted in accordance with Arkansas law saying in a statement last week, “The Secretary of State, and the public, knows that we provided the state with a list of our paid canvassers and all of the required information associated with their employment. They know this because the list we provided to the Secretary of State was FOIA’d and released by our opposition in an attempt to intimidate our supporters. Asserting now that we didn’t provide required documentation regarding paid canvassers is absurd and demonstrably, undeniably incorrect.”
At this time, the signatures for the proposed abortion amendment have been denied by the Secretary of State’s office with Jerry Cox of the Family Council Action Committee saying, “The chants about counting signatures and so forth are really missing the point. If you do not follow the law when you submit your signatures, then they’re not going to be counted.”
“To say that they were going to throw it out is inexcusable. It’s not justifiable. In my mind, it shouldn’t be… it’s rather bogus,” Sharon Boyd-Struthers said. “Legally, I don’t know what we’re going to do- except for doing it again two years from now to get it on the next ballot.”
After the release of the AFLG letter last week, the Secretary of State’s office reiterated its claim that the group did not submit the required paperwork.
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