ARKANSAS, USA — On Aug. 3, the Board of Election Commission denied certification to include recreational marijuana on the Arkansas ballot, one of the reasons was because of the language.
“We think they made a mistake when they decided it wasn’t. We tried to give them the basis for what the Arkansas Supreme Court would do, and they disagreed with us,” said Steve Lancaster, Attorney for Responsible Growth Arkansas.
Responsible Growth Arkansas (RGA) appealed it. Now it lies in the hands of the Supreme Court to rule if it should be counted, the order will allow it to be on the ballot conditionally.
“The court will rule before the election day before early voting starts. So, we’ll know by election day whether the votes are going to count,” Lancaster explained.
Lancaster says the state has to start printing ballots by Aug. 25, which doesn’t give the Supreme Court enough time to make its decision.
“So what we asked them to do…and they agreed was to go ahead and put us on the ballot. Our ballot title is going to be printed on the ballot that we all get in November when we’re voting,” Lancaster said.
The Arkansas Supreme Court will decide if the ballot title is acceptable, if it is everyone’s vote will count, if not then they won’t count those votes.
“We’re happy to be in front of the Arkansas supreme court, we think we’ll get a good decision there,” Lancaster said.
Lancaster says it could take away the chance for Arkansas voters to decide the issue.
“It’s now or two years and we think now is time and we want our votes to count."
Lancaster also says they’ll have a decision from the court in September.