LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — While an effort to expand medical marijuana access in Arkansas will appear on the 2024 ballot, the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office said the proposal fell short of the signature requirement, according to Secretary of State John Thurston.
In a post to X, the Public Policy Center first reported that Issue 3 fell short of the requirement by 2,664 signatures. This issue, otherwise known as the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024 aims to expand access to medical marijuana by qualified patients.
This would allow certain medical professionals to certify patients, expand the list of qualifying medical conditions, and more.
For the amendment to make it onto the ballot, there needed to be 90,704 qualifying signatures.
The group, Arkansans for Patient Access (APA), is the ballot committee that has been supporting the proposed medical marijuana amendment. Last month, the group announced that they submitted more than 150,000 voter signatures supporting the proposed amendment.
In a letter sent to the group, Secretary of State John Thurston said that 10,521 signatures submitted during the cure period were valid, which put the group at 88,040 signatures.
"Therefore, I am obligated to deem your petition insufficient," Thurston said.
Now, sponsors for Issue 3 are saying that they did in fact turn in enough signatures for the Arkansas Marijuana Amendment of 2024 to be on the ballot in November. They also said that they would pursue legal action after the rejection from the Secretary of State's Office.
"It appears that the certification of the Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024 has been blocked for reasons unrelated to the proposal’s merits, with political motives influencing the decision," the group Arkansans for Patient Access said. "We are deeply disappointed by this outcome and will pursue legal action tomorrow against the Secretary of State to ensure the voices of Arkansans are heard."
The group also said that 20,000 signatures collected during the cure period were excluded "due to an arbitrary, last-minute clerical rule change." They called this "unfair and contrary to the democratic process."
Bowen School of Law professor Robert Steinbuch shared that we've seen similar situations like this happen with other ballot measures that all come down to that technicality about paid canvassers.
"The question that became presented in a variety of these ballot initiatives was whether or not the paid canvassers, the supervisors of the paid canvassers themselves, could make certain certifications. Or if that duty was nondelegable and that has not been resolved," Steinbuch said.
He said that it is now it's up to the courts to decide what ultimately happens next.
"That's what remains. The open issue, and since it remains open at the Supreme Court, the Secretary of State said he won't count those signatures unless he's told otherwise by the Supreme Court," Steinbuch added.
The deadline for the state of Arkansas to respond to this citizen-led ballot issue group was September 30, 2024.
With early voting set to begin in just a few weeks, Pulaski County Election Coordinator Amanda Dickens wanted to inform voters on what this means for Issue 3 on the ballot.
"Since the ballots have already been approved and the absentee ballots have started to be mailed out there is no removing those issues off the ballot at this time. This means you won't see the results on election night," Dickens explained.
While this may have been a surprise for some, Dickens said it's not uncommon for something like this to happen so close to Election Day.
"That is very normal to happen like I said. Just about every general election, when we have all these issues on the ballot," Dickens added.