Wet county proponents gather signatures a third time

By Elizabeth Pannell

LITTLE ROCK — Proponents of a wet Clark County are, for the third time, asking registered voters to sign petitions to get the issue on the general election ballot in 2010.

This time around, however, the group, A Vote for Growth, has made a few changes in ensure the signatures from the 38 percent of registered Clark County voters are valid and will hold up in court.

"We started meeting in December after the last election and have been meeting every month or every couple of weeks to get ready to start gathering signatures," President Tim Kauffman said.

The group started gathering signatures on April 3, and so far have about 200 signatures.

Group member Dinah Arnold said signing the petition "simply means a person wishes to see the issue put on the ballot so that it can come to a vote."

"If enough signatures are obtained for the right to vote, the issue can be voted on in November 2010 for the first time since 1943," Arnold said, which is when the county was voted dry.

Rick Mays, pastor at Trinity Temple Assembly of God in Arkadelphiaand Bill Viser, Christian studies professor at Ouachita Baptist University, filed a lawsuit with the Clark County Circuit Clerk contending that some of the signatures obtained in 2008 were not valid.

In a previous interview, their attorney, Andi Davis, said the two men went to the booth where the petitions were being signed and noticed the petitions were postdated two days.

"The reason these petitions were postdated is because many of the signatures had been obtained from people who had registered to voted then signed the petition the same day," Davis said. "Those people were not qualified to sign the petition until their registration passed through the clerk's office."

In October, the state Supreme Court ruled that 40 of the 4,168 signatures gathered were invalid.

To ensure no signatures are forged, each petitioner during this gathering will have his own petition with his name on it, instead of several petitionerssharing one petition. Also, the person signing the petition must provide photo identification before they sign. The number of signatures on each petition is now five per sheet instead of 19.

The group also has a master list of registered voters in Clark County. If the person wanting to sign is not on the list, he must go to the courthouse to register.

Before, the group was registering people to vote and allowing them to sign on the same day, which is illegal.

Other changes the group implemented include hiring a new lawyer, Elaine Kneebone, replacing Andy Berr y, who said he stepped down due to a busy schedule. Kauffman said Kneebone volunteered to help the group to make sure "ifsomeone does challenge us, we don't have any holes, legally."

"She has sat down with us and we have made a few changes," Kauffman said. "But the good thing this time aroundis we have two years to collect the signatures. We are going to go above and beyond to make sure we are beyond reproach."

Now, those who are interested in being petitioners must go through training from one of six master trainers, whoreceived training from Kneebone. After training, the petitioner must sign a form saying they will not let anyone sign apetition illegally and that they are willing to go to court for any of their petitions. So far 23 people have been trained.

Kauffman said the group plans to gather signatures every Friday through Sunday in a blue tent set up in the shopping center near Walmart. He said in the coming months the group will try to visit residents who are homebound and cannot get out to sign.

Plans are also in the works to get signatures from Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University students as well as to visit other parts of the county, including Gurdon and Amity.

Kauffman said the group has not heard any objections yet, but he assumes there will be some in the future.

"We assume there will be somebody opposing because of the nature of the subject," Kauffman said. "We don't know that for sure yet, though." - epannell@ arkansasonline.com

Tri-Lakes, Pages 59, 62 on 04/16/2009