Three Saline County residents have sued the county clerk's office, contending that a petition to allow alcohol sales there is invalid because it did not include the required enacting clause.
On July 31, County Clerk Doug Curtis certified 25,683 signatures on a petition to allow county voters to decide in the Nov. 4 election whether to allow alcohol sales in the county.
On behalf of the plaintiffs, attorney Elizabeth Robben Murray, who works with the Friday, Eldredge & Clark law firm, has questioned the enacting clause on the initiative and some of the signatures on the petition, and has asked for an expedited hearing on the matter. The hearing is to take place on or before Aug. 18.
Murray was unavailable for comment Saturday. County Attorney Clay Ford said Saturday that he hadn't had a chance to thoroughly review the lawsuit, which was filed late Friday afternoon.
According to Amendment 7 of the Arkansas Constitution, "the style of all bills initiated and submitted under the provisions of this section shall be, 'Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Arkansas, (municipality or county, as the case may be).'"
A copy of the petition attached to the lawsuit reads: "We, the undersigned registered voters of Saline County, Arkansas respectfully propose the following ordinance and by this, our petition, order that the same be submitted to the people of said county to the end that the same may be adopted, enacted or rejected by a vote of the registered voters of said county at the regular general election to be held of the 4th day of November, 2014."
The group backing the ballot measure -- Our Community, Our Dollars -- needed 25,580 signatures to get the measure on the ballot in Saline County. Any measure needs 38 percent of registered voters' signatures to be placed on a ballot.
The group -- backed by Wal-Mart, Kum & Go and other retailers -- initially submitted 25,917 signatures on July 7, but the clerk's office said 4,406 were not valid. The group turned in 6,738 more signatures July 28, allowing it to reach the threshold to place the measure on the ballot.
Our Community, Our Dollars began efforts to collect enough signatures for similar ballot measures in Craighead and Faulkner counties as well, but later suspended efforts there.
Marshall Ney, the group's attorney, said he did not agree with the lawsuit.
"We are confident in our process and the validity of the signatures, and we expect to prevail," he said Saturday.
The lawsuit also contends that the clerk's office "erroneously accepted" some signatures and that some verified signatures on the petitions did not have valid notaries. Canvassers are not allowed to sign their own petitions, the plaintiffs said.
"Some signatures appear on petitions signed by more than one canvasser," the lawsuit states. "Some verified signatures appear on petition parts where the date the voter signed is after the date of the notarization."
Some signatures were collected during the time period after the group turned in the petition but before Curtis told the group that it did not have enough signatures, the lawsuit states. Murray pointed to Arkansas Code Annotated 14-14-915(e), which says petitioners have 10 calendar days to collect more signatures "upon notification of insufficiency of the petition."
That law is unclear, Ford said, adding that some state acts may change the statute.
The Saline County plaintiffs claimed "one or more" of the signatures on the petition were forged.
"The Petitions must be disregarded except to the extent the authenticity and validity of each is shown by the affirmative evidence," the lawsuit states.
Some of the signers registered to vote on the same day they signed the petition, disqualifying those signatures, the plaintiffs said.
The lawsuit did not say specifically how many signatures should be disqualified.
The county has 30 days to file an answer to the lawsuit, Ford said, adding that it may be best to have a hearing soon because the election date is drawing nearer.
If the measure makes it onto the November ballot, it will be the first wet-dry measure in the county since 1936. At that time, 431 residents voted for alcohol sales in the county and 620 voted against it.
Murray is also the attorney for Let Local Communities Decide for Themselves, a group opposing the statewide efforts to place the wet-dry issue on ballots in Arkansas' 75 counties.
In a July 21 letter, Murray asked Secretary of State Mark Martin to not certify a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize statewide alcohol sales, arguing that the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment was submitted less than four months before the Nov. 4 election -- which she claims is a violation of Amendment 7 to the state constitution.
Supporters of the statewide measure have until 5 p.m. Aug. 18 to gather the necessary 78,133 signatures to allow constitutional amendments on the ballot.
Metro on 08/10/2014