By ANDREW DEMILLO Updated 1:09 PM CDT, August 22, 2024
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s rejection of signed petitions for an abortion rights ballot initiative on Thursday, keeping the proposal from going before voters in November.
The ruling dashed the organizers’ hopes of getting the constitutional amendment measure onto the ballot in the predominantly Republican state, where many top leaders promote their opposition to abortion.
Election officials said Arkansans for Limited Government failed to comply with state law primarily because it submitted documentation regarding paid signature gatherers separately and not in a single bundle. The group argued that it should have been given more time to provide any additional documents needed.
“We find that the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification” in the way the law requires, Justice Rhonda Wood wrote for the 4-3 majority.
A dissenting justice wrote that the decision strips Arkansans’ of their rights and effectively changes the state’s initiative law.
“Why are the respondent and the majority determined to keep this particular vote from the people?” wrote Justice Karen Baker, who is running against Wood for chief justice. “The majority has succeeded in its efforts to change the law in order to deprive the voters of the opportunity to vote on this issue, which is not the proper role of this court.”
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision removing the nationwide right to abortion, there has been a push to have voters decide the matter state by state. Montana on Tuesday became the eighth state to put an abortion issue before voters this fall.
Abortion supporters have won in all seven states that have put abortion questions before voters since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Arkansans for Limited Government emailed a statement calling the ruling “a dark day in Arkansas.”
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-ballot-arkansas-supreme-court-48c208d49d82b467fbcc4b9c2724617a
Scottie's Playtime 
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We will win this battle.
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Exactly. And some areas will just be what they are.
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Hi Janet. I agree. The majority of the US population wants to let women have the choice over their body, especially if it might endanger the health of the woman. But republicans don’t care what the people want, they do not want to represent the people, they want to rule them. Republicans want to tell the public what to do and how, forcing them to obey the republican church doctrines. The US is in a very precarious position right now, if the Dems win we will be closer to being saved, if tRump wins all our rights, voting, and our constitution is gone. Hugs. Scottie
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