Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston announced Wednesday that the group behind a proposed constitutional amendment regarding a casino license in Pope County has collected enough voter signatures to qualify for the November ballot, while a proposed amendment to expand the state’s medical marijuana program has not.
But the marijuana amendment did meet a lower threshold that opens the door to a 30-day “cure period” to make up for the shortfall. Organizers must now collect thousands more valid signatures before Aug. 30 if they are to have a shot at placing the measure before voters in November.
Petitions supporting would-be constitutional amendments must bear signatures from at least 90,704 Arkansas voters. (That number is 10% of the votes cast in the state’s last gubernatorial election.) The deadline to turn in those signatures was July 5, but state law allows an extension in some instances.
Bill Paschall, executive director of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association, said he was pleased the amendment had qualified for the cure period and was confident organizers would collect enough signatures to meet the threshold before the end of August.
Here’s Thurston’s letter to Arkansans for Patient Access, the group behind the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024. If approved by voters, it would add additional types of medical professionals who can certify patients for the state’s existing medical marijuana program, eliminate the $50 charge for patient cards, extend the life of patient cards from one year to three years, eliminate the prohibition on dispensary sales of pre-rolled joints and allow patients to grow some plants of their own.
And here’s Thurston’s letter to Local Voters in Charge, the group behind the casino amendment. If passed, it would effectively revoke the casino license awarded earlier this year to Oklahoma-based operator Cherokee Nation Entertainment and require a county-wide special election on whether to approve a casino in the county. It’s funded by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a rival of the Cherokee group.
The casino amendment is the latest twist in a bitter, long-running fight between rival gambling interests over the Pope County license. In 2018, Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment that authorized four casinos statewide in specific locations around the state. State regulators awarded three licenses – one each in Hot Springs, West Memphis and Pine Bluff.
The fourth, slated for Pope County, has remained in limbo ever since.
For years, Cherokee Nation Entertainment has dueled with Mississippi-based Gulfside Casino Partnership in the courts — and, according to some state lawmakers, on the streets of Russellville. The drama appeared as if it might be nearing an end earlier this year, when the Arkansas Racing Commission awarded the Pope County license to the Cherokee group. But the proposed amendment from Local Voters in Charge could upend the license decision yet again and result in Pope County not having a casino at all.
Investing in Arkansas, a Cherokee-funded group opposed to the amendment, called the measure “extremely misleading” and urged a “no” vote if it should make the November ballot.
“This ballot measure is nothing but a ploy by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma – a rejected casino operator – to change the Arkansas constitution to protect its business interests in another state,” a spokesperson said.
Local Voters in Charge has raised a total of $5.3 million, with all but $100 coming from the Choctaw Nation. They reported a balance of $1.46 million at the end of June. Investing in Arkansas has raised $775,000, all from Cherokee Nation Businesses. They reported a balance of $42,584 at the end of June.
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At least six groups aimed to place proposed changes to the constitution or state law on the Arkansas ballot this year. Three failed to meet the 90,704 signature threshold by July 5.
Another, the sponsors of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment, turned in more than 102,000 signatures by the deadline, but the petition was then disqualified by Thurston on a minor paperwork error involving paid canvassers. Its sponsors are challenging Thurston’s decision in a case pending before the state Supreme Court.
Unlike the other groups, the sponsors of the casino and marijuana amendments relied heavily on paid canvassers, fueled by large sums of money raised from business interests. (Though the abortion amendment organizers raised $400,000 and used some paid canvassers, most signatures were gathered by volunteers.) The investment paid off, with both groups submitting signatures on July 5 that far exceeded the 90,704 threshold, at least according to affidavits from the sponsors.
Turning in signatures is only the first step, though. The secretary of state’s office then must count and verify signatures in a multi-stage process required by state law.
Staff first perform an “initial count” to determine if a group has reached the 90,704 threshold and met other basic requirements. Some signatures, or whole petition sheets, may be thrown out at this stage for a limited set of reasons — if a person’s name is illegible, for example.
If the initial count shows that a petition has 90,704 signatures, staff then moves on to verifying that those signatures belong to registered voters and include correct information based on a review of state and county records. Typically, a large number of signatures are culled at this second stage: Arkansas has some of the lowest voter registration and participation rates in the country, and many people sign petitions without realizing they’re unregistered.
The group behind the casino amendment has said it turned in 162,000 signatures on July 5.
Thurston said Wednesday his office verified “no less than 116,200 signatures” on the petition, meaning staff whittled down the original number by tens of thousands during the verification process. But 116,200 is more than 90,704, so the casino group’s proposal has been certified for the ballot. (That doesn’t mean it can’t still be disqualified: The proposal is contentious and is all but certain to face legal challenges between now and Election Day.)
The marijuana amendment, on the other hand, slipped below the 90,704 threshold during the signature verification process. Thurston’s letter Wednesday said his staff’s initial count showed 108,512 signatures on the group’s petition. After staff culled deficient signatures during the verification stage, though, the petition was left with “no less than 77,000 valid signatures,” making it “currently insufficient.”
This is where the 30-day cure period comes in. If a petition still has signatures totalling 75% of the 90,704 threshold after the verification process is done — that’s about 68,000 — it’s given a window of time to make up for the ones staff discarded. And if it can gather enough valid signatures to make its way back to 90,704 during the cure period, it can still qualify for the ballot.
Paschall, the cannabis association director, said the sponsors of the amendment anticipated the measure would need a cure period. “It came in pretty much where we expected,” he said.
The roughly 70% verification rate was “a really good number,” Paschall said. He pointed to factors that lead to invalid signatures, such as people signing the petition in the wrong county, providing incomplete information or an unreadable stamp from a notary on a signature sheet.
Paschall said the group did not stop collecting signatures on July 5 and has collected thousands more in the weeks since the initial deadline, although he did not give a number.
Arkansans for Patient Access, the sponsor of the marijuana amendment, has raised a total of $1.65 million and reported a balance of $313,069 at the end of June. Two groups working to defeat the marijuana amendment and the abortion amendment, Stronger Arkansas and the Arkansas Family Council, have reported raising a combined total of about $477,000 and over $52,000 in cash on hand at the end of June. Another group opposing the marijuana proposal, Protect Arkansas Kids, was formed last month and has not yet filed a fundraising report.