Arkansans For Limited Government talks lawsuit over abortion amendment

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Arkansans for Limited Government discusses the lawsuit it filed against Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston regarding the expulsion of 14,000 signatures needed to bring an abortion amendment to the ballot in November.

AFLG started collecting signatures back in early January to get the abortion amendment on the ballot.

“On July 5, Arkansans for limited government submitted our petition to the secretary of state’s office. We needed to get 90,704 signatures from Arkansas voters,” said Gennie Diaz, communications director for AFLG.

Diaz says that Arkansans for Limited Government submitted more than 100,000 signatures to Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston’s office, more than the required 90,000 signatures they needed in the first submission.

Thurston threw out more than 14,000 signatures on July 10.

AFLG was disappointed in the outcome. “Unfortunately this state engaged in some kind of shenanigans in our opinion,” Diaz said.

AFLG says it did turn in those documents, and Thurston said he is not reversing his decision.

Diaz said that Thurston was not doing his job. “It’s honestly a dereliction of duty on behalf of the secretary of state’s office because they are required to count ours because we met that facially valid threshold,” Diaz said.

AFLG filed a lawsuit against the secretary of state saying Thurston unlawfully rejected their documentation. The organization is now waiting for a response from the Arkansas Supreme Court on the next steps in the lawsuit.

When asked, the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office refused to comment on the litigation.

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