ARKANSAS, USA — The Arkansas Supreme Court granted a petition Thursday allowing recreational marijuana to be voted on in the November election.
On Aug. 3, the Board of Election Commission denied certification to include the initial measure, one of the reasons because of the way it was worded.
Responsible Growth Arkansas (RGA), the group that gathered the signatures to put recreational marijuana in front of Arkansas voters, appealed it.
On Aug. 11, the state Supreme Court ordered that while it decided on whether the votes should count, to still allow the measure to be on the ballot. The state had to start printing ballots by Aug. 25, which wouldn't have given the Supreme Court enough time to make its final decision.
In the Court's decision on Thursday, Sept. 22, it said, "We give the ballot title a liberal construction and interpretation in order that it secure the purposes of reserving to the people this power.
And we recognize that it is impossible to prepare a ballot title that would suit everyone.
With these standards in mind, we conclude that the ballot title at issue is complete enough to convey an intelligible idea of the scope and import of the proposed amendment."
5NEWS will update this article with more information as it becomes available.
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