Election officials submit count of Arkansas abortion amendment petition signatures gathered by volunteers

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A new court filing Thursday from the secretary of state’s office claims organizers behind an attempt to put an abortion amendment on the Arkansas ballot is short on signatures.

The filing from the attorney general’s office on behalf of Secretary John Thurston includes an affidavit from Arkansas Director of Elections Leslie Bellamy in which she asserts that the group Arkansans for Limited Government submitted a total of 87,675 signatures gathered by volunteers.

Bellamy added that an additional 912 signatures were submitted by AFLG that did not note if the signatures were gathered volunteers or paid workers.

The total number of signatures in the two groupings was 88,587, Bellamy concluded. That amount is short of the 90,704 signature threshold set under state law.

Organizers with AFLG said they had submitted 101,525 signatures to the state on the July 5 deadline date. Less than a week later, Thurston’s office said the group had not included two sets of documents related to the use of paid canvassers by AFLG in gathering signatures, meaning those signatures would not be counted & that AFLG was below the required signature amount.

On Tuesday, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered the count of signatures gathered by volunteers and gave the secretary of state’s office a deadline on July 29.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin released a statement following Thursday’s filing, indicating that the state had met its deadline ahead of schedule and reaffirm his belief that AFLG did not meet the threshold to allow for a cure period.

“The Secretary of State fulfilled the order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, did so ahead of schedule, and confirmed that the abortion advocates did not turn in enough qualifying signatures to meet the statutory threshold for a cure period,” a statement from Griffin’s office said.

FOX 16 News reached out to Arkansans for Limited Government to comment on this most recent development. In a statement, organizers said they appreciated that election officials complied with the state supreme court order and said their “optimism remains alive but cautious” while they wait for the next decision from the court.

“As we’ve made clear since July 10, when the Secretary of State unlawfully attempted to disqualify the Amendment, we are confident that, given the facts of this case and the law, the Amendment should move forward to the next stage of the certification process,” the statement read. “We believe that the voices of more than 102,000 Arkansans deserve to be heard.”

The proposed amender aimed to shrine abortion access in the state constitution and would stop any laws from being passed to restrict abortion in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly or to protect the life or well-being of the mother within the first 18 weeks after conception.

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