More signatures sought for wet/dry issue

LITTLE ROCK — Residents of Clark County will begin seeing Arkadelphia attorney Andy Berry and his canvassers around town as they try - for the third time - to obtain more signatures to change the county from dry to wet.

After the state Supreme Court ruled Oct. 31 that 40 signatures were not valid, Berry said he has a 10-day period to obtain more signatures that will then be certified by the county clerk in order to have a special election on the issue. The Supreme Court ruled that votes on the Clark County wet/dry issue would not be counted because of forged and post-dated signatures obtained by supporters of a wet county.

Two years ago Berry began obtaining the signatures needed to get the wet/dry initiative on the general election ballot. He needed 38 percent of the registered voter population inClark County.

Berry turned in 6,160 signatures to the county clerk - only 4,140 were needed. Of those, the county clerk certified 4,168.

Rick Mays, pastor at Trinity Temple Assembly of God in Arkadelphia and Bill Viser, Christian studies professor at Ouachita Baptist University, filed a lawsuit with the Clark County circuit clerk saying some of the signatures were not valid.

Their attorney, Andi Davis, said the two men went to a booth where the petitions were being signed and noticed they were post-dated two days.

"The reason these petitions were post-dated is because many of the signatures had been obtained from people who had registered to vote then signed the petition on the same day," Davis said.

"Those people were not qualified to sign the petition until their registration passed through the clerk's office. My clients are not opposed to the democratic process, they just spoke up when they saw something wrong."

Mays said he had no comment.

"This thing is spinning out of control, and I am no longer speaking on the issue," Mays said.

Viser did not return phone calls.

Davis said the judge in Circuit Court ruled that an individual who signed up to vote had the reasonable expectation that they were registered and could sign.

The Supreme Court reversed this ruling and threw out 26 signatures, plus an additional 14.

"The other 14 signatures were thrown out because two names on one of the petitions had been forged," Davis said. "Two people received an e-mailstating they had signed a petition when they really hadn't. The couple contacted me and were very angry. So because they testified and said they did not sign the petition the judge threw out the entire page of signatures."

Arkadelphia residents Ken and Lillian Blackmon both said they were "very disappointed" that the wet/dry initiative was taken off the ballot.

"How can two citizens go to court and decide for the entire county on this issue?" Ken asked. "That to me is a direct violation of the American Constitution. We have the right to vote. I am just livid."

Berry said he has until Monday, 10 days from the date of the Supreme Court ruling, to obtain the needed signatures and get them certified.

"We are going to collect those signatures and get them to the clerk to certify," Berry said. "Then, hopefully we will have a special election in 60-90 days."

Davis said she was not certain how that issue will play out.

"I just know that Andy will have to go through the Supreme Court again," Davis said.

This effort was the second time that Berry has worked to get signatures.

He said the first effort was not well-organized and only garnered 15 percent of the needed signatures.

Berry said in a previous interview that if this initiative did not pass he would not attempt to get the necessary signatures again. In a Nov. 3 interview, he said he had changed his mind.

"I lied," Berry said. "This thing has gotten too big. If we can't get it done now, then we will begin getting the signatures for the 2010 election."

Berry has contended that the lack of growth in Arkadelphia is because it is a dry county.

Berry said he would make some changes to the signaturegathering process.

"I would like to have a camera set up at petition signings," Berry said. "So we can have records."

Larry Page with the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Councilsaid he was "pleased" with the outcome.

He said Clark County is one of four counties in the state that attempted to "go wet" with no success.

Tri-Lakes, Pages 129, 133 on 11/09/2008