Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston responds to complaint about abortion on ballot rejection: ‘My position remains unchanged’

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas secretary of state continues to maintain his rejection of the signatures to place an abortion amendment on the November 2024 ballot was correct.

Secretary of State John Thurston responded to a Thursday letter from Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) on Monday, stating “My position remains unchanged.”

At issue are the paperwork accompanying the ballot petition signatures and the use of paid canvassers by AFLG. In this letter Monday, Thurston stated the group had failed to turn in all of the required paperwork accompanying the signatures and had not turned in the paperwork at the same time it turned in the signatures, two points of failure to comply with the law. 

Failure on these two points led to AFLG’s submission being rejected, Thurston’s letter stated.

AFLG turned in 101,525  signatures at the secretary of state’s office on the July 5 deadline to place access to abortion before voters on the November ballot. By state law, to place an amendment on the ballot requires 90,704 signatures of voters supporting it, certified by the secretary.

On July 10, Thurston sent a letter to the group stating that its signatures were rejected in accordance with state law. The letter stated that AFLG has used some paid canvassers, but it did not include paperwork naming the canvassers and affirming they had followed the law for gathering signatures.

Because paid canvassers had gathered 14,143 signatures, those were now invalid, the letter stated, meaning AFLG had turned in 87,832 signatures, a number below the required threshold.

AFLG followed up with a letter stating it had submitted the required paperwork in June and stating the Secretary of State is required to count all the signatures while the paperwork is being disputed. Thurston refuted this in the Monday letter, stating that the paperwork must be turned in at the same time as the signatures.

AFLG was contacted for a response to Thurston’s letter, but one has not been received prior to this story being published. If a response is made this story will be updated.