Local Voters in Charge spokesperson Hans Stiritz speaks to reporters at the Arkansas Capitol on Friday, July 5, 2024 after the group submitted petitions to the Secretary of State. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
A proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment that would repeal a Pope County casino license will be on November’s statewide ballot, while supporters of changes to the state’s medical marijuana industry have 30 days to collect more signatures from registered voters, Secretary of State John Thurston’s office announced Wednesday.
Proposed constitutional amendments require 90,704 signatures from 50 counties to qualify for the ballot. Local Voters in Charge, the ballot question committee supporting the repeal of the casino license, submitted more than 162,000 signatures from all 75 counties on the submission deadline of July 5.
Thurston’s staff “verified no less than 116,200 signatures,” he wrote in a letter to the ballot question committee.
Arkansas voters approved casino gaming in 2018 in four Arkansas counties — Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson and Pope. While that constitutional amendment received a majority vote in the other three counties, Pope County voters rejected the proposal.
In addition to repealing the license, the Local Voter Control of Casino Gambling Amendment would require that any new casino built in the state be approved in a countywide special election before a license can be issued.
Local Voters in Charge spokesman Hans Stiritz invoked the state motto — Regnat Populus, Latin for “the people rule” — in a statement Wednesday.
“In record numbers, Arkansas voters have stated the obvious – casinos should not be forced into communities that do not want them,” Stiritz said.
The Pope County casino license has been the subject of consistent litigation since 2019, not only due to local opposition but also due to multiple casino operators interested in the license. In June, the Arkansas Racing Commission awarded the license to Cherokee Nation Entertainment, the tribe’s entertainment and gaming company. Less than a week later, another applicant filed a lawsuit seeking the invalidation of the new license.
The ballot question committee Investing in Arkansas opposes the Local Voter Control of Casino Gambling Amendment, and the group issued a statement Wednesday urging the public to vote against the measure.
Proposed medical marijuana, anti-casino amendments submitted for Secretary of State approval
“It robs the state, Pope County and Russellville of jobs and revenue to fund essential services that benefit Arkansans – like roads, bridges and education,” the group said in the statement. “…Arkansas jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact are at stake. A vote AGAINST this amendment in November is a vote FOR the growth of Arkansas.”
Cherokee Nation Businesses has donated $775,000 to Investing in Arkansas, according to financial disclosure documents. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a rejected applicant for the casino license, has donated $5.3 million, including $2.85 million in June, to Local Voters in Charge. Investing in Arkansas reported no contributions in June.
Investing in Arkansas reiterated in its statement that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is pushing for the approval of the amendment “to protect its business interests in another state.” The Choctaw Nation has a casino in Pocola, Oklahoma, just across the border from Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Cure period for medical cannabis measure
Arkansans voted to legalize cannabis for medical use in 2016, though the first products were not sold until 2019. The Arkansans for Patient Access ballot question committee said July 5 it submitted 111,402 signatures from 62 counties to put the proposed Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024 on the ballot.
Thurston’s office counted 108,512 signatures, 77,000 of which were valid, he wrote in a letter to the ballot question committee. The valid signatures account for 85% of the required minimum.
Arkansas law allows sponsors of proposed ballot measures more time to submit additional signatures if the initial submission contains valid signatures from registered voters equal to at least 75% of the overall required number of signatures and 75% of the required number from at least 50 counties.
Arkansans for Patient Access has until Aug. 30 to submit more signatures, Thurston wrote.
Supporters have said the proposed amendment aims to improve patient access to medical cannabis, especially for those with lower incomes and people living in rural areas where access to primary care physicians is limited.
Physician assistants, nurse practitioners and pharmacists would be included as professionals who can certify patients for medical marijuana cards, health care providers would be able to conduct patient assessment via telemedicine, and providers would be permitted to qualify patients based on medical need, according to the initiative, rather than the existing 18 qualifying conditions outlined by the state.
If approved, the amendment would also allow patients and designated caregivers older than 21 to grow up to seven mature marijuana plants and seven young plants. The measure also would eliminate application fees for patient cards and extend the term of the card to three years.
“Given the excitement for this amendment shown by voters across the state, we are confident that Arkansans for Patient Access will meet and exceed the 90,704-signature threshold by August 30th,” ballot question committee member Bill Paschal said in a Wednesday statement.
Industry professionals reflect on five years of medical marijuana in Arkansas
Increased signature threshold
Supporters of ballot initiatives this year and last year have faced heightened requirements to get them on the ballot.
Act 236 of 2023 raised the minimum number of counties where ballot initiative groups must gather signatures from 15 to 50. The law passed the Arkansas Legislature mostly along party lines before Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed it into law in March 2023, and its emergency clause put it into effect immediately.
The League of Women Voters is challenging the law in Pulaski County Circuit Court, claiming it’s unconstitutional because it places additional restrictions on the initiative process.
Article 5 of the Arkansas Constitution states: “The legislative power of the people of this State shall be vested in a General Assembly, which shall consist of the Senate and House of Representatives, but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose legislative measures, laws and amendments to the Constitution, and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the General Assembly; and also reserve the power, at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any entire act or any item of an appropriation bill.”
Act 236 was not the Legislature’s first attempt to change the citizen-led initiative process. In 2020, the Legislature referred Issue 3 to the ballot, which would have required canvassers to gather signatures from at least 45 counties and would have moved up several petition deadlines, among other things. Roughly 56% of Arkansas voters rejected the proposed constitutional amendment.
Then in 2022, the Legislature referred Issue 2 to the ballot. It would have required a 60% majority to pass most statewide ballot initiatives, and it too failed after roughly 59% of Arkansans voted no.
A year ago, advocates for public education narrowly failed to collect enough signatures under Act 236 to get a measure on the ballot that would have repealed Arkansas LEARNS, a wide-ranging 2023 education law. The measure fell 978 signatures short of the required minimum of 54,422 and qualified in 48 of the required 50 counties.
Arkansas Secretary of State counts 87K+ signatures for proposed abortion amendment
The fate of a proposed constitutional amendment to create a limited right to abortion remains uncertain after being submitted for this year’s ballot. Thurston said July 10 that his office would not count the signatures because the ballot question committee did not submit required documents related to paid canvassers.
Arkansans for Limited Government filed a legal complaint against Thurston with the Arkansas Supreme Court and said it did in fact submit the required paperwork along with more than 101,000 signatures from 53 counties.
The court ordered Thurston last week to count the signatures, which totaled 102,730, and at least 87,675 were facially valid and collected by unpaid canvassers, according to Director of Elections Leslie Bellamy. More legal filings are upcoming in the case.
The League of Women Voters said in a Tuesday statement that it agreed with AFLG that Thurston was required to count all the signatures for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment instead of rejecting it entirely because he deemed invalid the 14,143 signatures collected by paid canvassers.
However, the organization wrote, Thurston should not include any signatures collected by paid canvassers after June 27 in the court-ordered initial count. AFLG submitted a legally required “sponsor affidavit” to Thurston on June 27 and hired 75 more paid canvassers after that date, according to documents filed with Thurston’s office.
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