The Arkansas Supreme Court building in Little Rock. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)
The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered the secretary of state’s office to continue counting signatures for an amendment to expand medical marijuana.
The high court on Wednesday ordered Secretary of State John Thurston to continue validating roughly 18,000 signatures collected to put the amendment on the ballot. Those signatures had previously been thrown out over a paperwork issue, meaning votes on the amendment in November wouldn’t count.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Dan Kemp and Associate Justice Courtney Hudson have recused themselves from the case, meaning Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders must appoint special justices to replace them to hear the lawsuit filed by amendment supporters.
Wednesday’s order says Thurston must continue counting signatures until slightly exceeding the threshold of 90,704 signatures needed to place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. Earlier this week, Thurston said some signatures collected during a 30-day “cure period” in August should not be counted, meaning the amendment didn’t meet the threshold. The group behind the amendment filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on Tuesday.
The signatures were disqualified because they were collected by paid canvassers. The group behind the amendment, Arkansans for Patient Access, hired a third-party company to then hire paid signature-gatherers. Representatives for the company, instead of the amendment sponsor, then signed off on some required paperwork for canvassers, in violation of state law, Thurston has said.
The interpretation and application of that state law is central to the legal questions in the case, and could ultimately decide whether or not Arkansans can vote on the amendment on Nov. 5.
If passed, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment would ease barriers to entry to the state’s existing medical marijuana program, expanding qualifying medical conditions and providers able to prescribe the drug, among other things.
Legal challenges based on state law regarding paid canvassers led a proposed amendment to legalize abortion to be disqualified from the November ballot, and could also decide the fate of another amendment regarding casinos.
In the case of the marijuana amendment, the secretary of state’s office must file a notice of compliance by noon Friday. Opening briefs from both sides are due by 4 p.m. Friday, with responses due Monday, October 7.
This article first appeared on Little Rock Public Radio’s website and is reprinted by permission.