ARKANSAS, USA — Both the Pope County casino license and medical marijuana amendments are awaiting the final Arkansas Supreme Court decision to certify their placement on to the November ballot in a pending lawsuit against Secretary of State John Thurston.
But in the meantime, legal arguments have been heard from a group attempting to block the casino amendment, while the group behind the medical marijuana initiative has continued to collect signatures.
This week, arguments were heard to challenge the Pope County casino license amendment from getting on the November ballot. The group challenging the amendment rested their case on Aug. 29.
Attorneys for the group behind the amendment, Local Voters in Charge, or LVC, argued their case on Aug. 30. The special master in the case must submit his report to Arkansas Supreme Court by Sept. 9.
LVC sent 5NEWS the following statement:
"At this time, Local Voters in Charge will not be releasing any comment regarding the specifics of this week's legal hearings challenging the proposed Local Voter Control of Casino Gambling Amendment."
"However, we remain confident in our position defending the more than 116,000 registered voters whose signatures were verified on this petition. Our initiative — Issue 2 — is of vital interest to the entire state: local voters should have the final say on casino gambling in Arkansas.”
As for the medical marijuana amendment, Arkansans for Patient Access, or APA, announced on Friday they collected another 38,938 signatures during the cure period because they were short after Secretary of State John Thurston's first count.
"For the last 30 days, both national ballot access and verified Arkansas have been gathering signatures, trying to get that last 13,000 to cover the cure period, and we far exceeded what was required," Melissa Fults with APA said.
Out of the nearly 39,000 signatures, 18,000 were collected by paid canvassers. The lawsuit the supreme court is reviewing right now argues the medical marijuana group did not submit the correct documents confirming their paid canvassers received background checks.
"If we don't get those 18,000 signatures, we still have 20,000 signatures, which I think will be more than enough for those 13,000. So, I fully expect us to be on the ballot," Fults said.
Just to be clear, if the supreme court rules in favor of Thurston's office, the casino amendment could still be seen on the ballot in November. But, the votes won't be counted. That's due to the casino amendment already becoming certified by Thurston before LVC intervened on the abortion group's lawsuit.
No matter how the supreme court rules, the medical marijuana amendment should be on the ballot and the votes will be counted because they presumably have enough additional signatures collected from the cure period.
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