Arkansas secretary of state says abortion initiative is invalid

The Arkansas secretary of state has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to create exceptions to the state's abortion ban.The group Arkansans for Limited Government turned in the proposal with more than 100,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's Office last week.“We've provided everything that was required of us," Arkansans for Limited Government Communications Director Gennie Diaz said. However, Secretary of State John Thurston found that they did not submit a statement identifying paid canvassers by name or a signed statement showing that the paid canvassers were given a required handbook and explanations of state rules.In a letter to the group's representative, Thurston wrote that because of these omissions, signatures collected by paid canvassers are invalid.This leaves the petition 3,322 signatures short of the required number.“We are going to pursue every avenue we possibly can to get their voices heard on the ballot in November," Davis said. "We're working with our legal team right now and they are diligently going over what the argument that was laid out by the Secretary of State against us."This ballot measure sought to prevent the state government from restricting or delaying abortion access within 18 weeks of fertilization.After 18 weeks, abortion would be legal in five circumstances: rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly, to protect a woman's life and to protect a woman's health.The Arkansans for Limited Government group issued a response to Secretary Thurston's disqualification of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment Wednesday night.The statement from AFLG's Director of Strategy is as follows"Arkansans for Limited Government is alarmed and outraged by Secretary Thurston’s attempt to disqualify the Arkansas Abortion Amendment from November’s ballot. We worked with the Secretary of State’s office during every step of the process to ensure that we followed all rules and regulations. At multiple junctures — including on July 5 inside of the Capitol Building — we discussed signature submission requirements with the Secretary of State’s staff. In fact, the Secretary of State’s office supplied us with the affidavit paperwork, which we used. Until today, we had no reason not to trust that the paperwork they supplied us was correct and complete. The Secretary of State, and the public, knows that we provided the state with a list of our paid canvassers and all of the required information associated with their employment. They know this because the list we provided to the Secretary of State was FOIA’d and released by our opposition in an attempt to intimidate our supporters. Asserting now that we didn’t provide required documentation regarding paid canvassers is absurd and demonstrably, undeniably incorrect. Arkansas law does not empower the Secretary of State to make an unfounded legal interpretation, which is what he did today by summarily declaring that we have not completed the steps for qualification. We are owed a period to provide a hard copy of the statement, which has been emailed to their office more than a dozen times, if that is what’s needed. More than 101,000 Arkansans participated in this heroic act of direct democracy and stood up to loudly proclaim their support for access to healthcare. They deserve better than a state government that seeks to silence them. We will fight this ridiculous disqualification attempt with everything we have. We will not back down."The measure is one of three proposed amendments that were submitted last week.