Arkansas high court orders secretary of state to keep counting marijuana initiative signatures

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered the secretary of state’s office to continue counting signatures for an amendment to expand medical marijuana.

The high court on Wednesday ordered Secretary of State John Thurston to continue validating roughly 18,000 signatures collected to put the amendment on the ballot. Those signatures had previously been thrown out over a paperwork issue, meaning votes on the amendment in November wouldn’t count.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Dan Kemp and Associate Justice Courtney Hudson have recused themselves from the case, meaning Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders must appoint special justices to replace them to hear the lawsuit filed by amendment supporters.

Wednesday’s order says Thurston must continue counting signatures until slightly exceeding the threshold of 90,704 signatures needed to place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. Earlier this week, Thurston said some signatures collected during a 30-day “cure period” in August should not be counted, meaning the amendment didn’t meet the threshold. The group behind the amendment filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on Tuesday.


https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/10/02/arkansas-high-court-orders-secretary-of-state-to-keep-counting-marijuana-initiative-signatures/