There have been a record number of petitions this year and efforts to get signatures supporting or opposing these issues are intensifying as the deadline approaches.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The deadline to submit petitions that could put Arkansas laws on the ballot is just weeks away, and the groups behind those ballot initiatives are ramping up their efforts to get enough signatures in time.
State laws that people want changed can be put to a vote, but first, a petition must get more than 90,000 signatures with representation from at least 50 counties.
This year, there are a record number of petitions, and as the signature deadline approaches, the efforts for and against these issues are growing stronger.
As summer events pop up in Little Rock this year, people can expect to see a lot more people with clipboards. They don’t ask you to vote or who you vote for, but rather if you help something appear on the ballot.
Kristin Stuart works for Indivisible Little Rock Central Arkansas, an advocacy group that hopes to collect thousands of signatures on various election issues before July 5.
“I know that the abortion (amendment) is about 75% of the way (toward the signed goal),” Stuart said. “This would not make it law. This would simply ensure that it is on the ballot in November so Arkansans can have a say.”
Indivisible Arkansas supports several other ballot initiatives, including education, the pink tax, the freedom of information law and medical marijuana.
But not everyone supports bringing these issues to a vote, including the conservative group Family Council.
“We oppose the abortion measure and the marijuana measure, and right now we are urging people not to sign the petition,” said Family Council Executive Director Jerry Cox.
The Family Council has organized its own volunteers to promote the initiatives in addition to publishing the names of the enumerators.
“If our volunteers in a city somewhere in the state know that there are paid enumerators in their community, then they can keep an eye out,” Cox said. “In fact, they can attend the same events. It is their constitutional right and they can urge people not to sign the petition and present their case.”
However, pollsters like Stuart don’t plan to slow down anytime soon, nor does the opposition, as election-year efforts ramp up early.
“We’re in favor of people being able to put things on the ballot and we’re in favor of people being able to oppose it,” Cox said. “That’s freedom. That’s democracy.”
All petitions must be submitted to the state by July 5. The state will then verify the signatures to determine what will be included on the ballot.
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