A group backing an amendment to legalize abortion in Arkansas expressed frustration after the proposed amendment was thrown out Wednesday. The proposal, if approved by voters, would have legalized abortion up to the 18th week of pregnancy.
Rebecca Bobrow, Director of Strategy for Arkansans for Limited Government, said she was “outraged” by Secretary of State John Thurston's decision. Thurston said the group was missing two pieces of paperwork; the first was a list of paid canvassers, and the second was evidence that paid canvassers had been shown the canvassing handbook.
Of more than 101,000 signatures collected, about 14,000 were gathered by paid canvassers. Without those signatures, the group is below the 90,000-signature threshold needed to put their amendment on the ballot.
This comes after Arkansans For Limited Government celebrated meeting the signature threshold Friday. They brought the boxes to Thurston's office and certified election paperwork as a group in the State Capitol building.
The group is adamant they filed all the correct paperwork
“In fact, the Secretary of State’s office supplied us with the affidavit paperwork, which we used,” a statement from Bobrow said. “Until today, we had no reason not to trust that the paperwork they supplied us was correct and complete.”
They are suspicious of whether they actually failed to fill out the paperwork correctly.
“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.”
Bobrow said the allegation that they did not fill in the correct paperwork is “absurd and demonstrably, undeniably incorrect.”
The statement ended with “we will not back down.”
Meanwhile, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin released a statement lauding the “rigorousness” of the rules.
“Failure to follow such a basic requirement is inexcusable,” he said. “The abortion advocates have no one to blame but themselves.”
He had previously approved the amendment's ballot title earlier this year.
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