MOUNT JUDEA -- The sponsor of a petition to repeal the ban on retail alcohol sales in Newton County said this week that it appears unlikely that she will be able to gather the approximately 2,200 signatures necessary to get the measure on the November ballot.
Denise King, the petition's sponsor, said pressure from members of the county's religious community, as well as competition from a statewide petition to repeal all "dry county" regulations throughout the state, may have put the final 300 signatures needed before the county's Aug. 4 deadline just out of reach.
"Since the state thing has come out, it's kind of hindered us," said King, who said she currently has more than 1,800 signatures in support of the countywide petition. "People don't want to sign the county one, because the Baptists said they're going to put it on display."
King was referring to the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment, which needs approximately 78,000 signatures from at least 15 counties to appear on the state-wide ballot in November, and to a quarter-page advertisement that has run each week in the Newton County Times since June 25 and urges local residents not to sign King's county-wide petition.
The advertisement begins with the questions, "Is YOUR Name on the Liquor Petition? Do you want to be a promoter of death and destruction? Do you want to be part of any cause that could bring sorrow and misery to little children?"
The ad ends with a declaration that "After the petitions have been submitted to the county clerk's office, copies will be on display at the First Baptist Church in Jasper for those who want to check to see if their name or the name of an elderly or incompetent person may have been signed fraudulently."
Brian Pruitt, a Newton County resident who has helped King navigate the county in search of signatures since April, said the advertisement was nothing more than an attempt to suppress voter turnout.
"That's basically blackmail and shame and intimidation," Pruitt said.
David Faught, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Jasper, said the plan to display the names of signatories was to give county residents the opportunity to see if any fraudulent signatures escaped the county clerk's inspection.
"If a member of my church has had their name signed, or someone has signed my name to it, the county clerk's not going to know that" Faught said. "And I want to make sure my name's not on it, personally."
Faught, who said he had not read King's petition, said his objections to reversing Newton County's ban on retail alcohol sales is based on his Christian scriptural beliefs.
"Just the fact that if it's legally being sold, then when our children go into the convenience store to get a soda pop, it's there," Faught said. "Eventually, over time, what happens is, people begin to think, 'well it's all right,' to buy the alcohol, to drink it, and it causes a lot of problems in the community as well."
"I realize people drink," Faught said. "My goal is not to keep people from drinking alcohol. I'm not going to be able to do that, I realize that. But sin should not be brought out in the open -- that's the biggest thing."
Employees at the newspaper said the advertisement, which says that it was "paid for by area churches and individuals," was principally produced by Connie Burks, a resident of Harrison in neighboring Boone County.
Burks could not be reached for comment Tuesday. During a phone interview last week, Burks questioned the validity of the signatures already gathered by King after the Newton County Clerk returned several hundred signed petitions to King that had been submitted earlier in July. Burks raised similar questions again in a July 23 letter to the Newton County Times editor.
Newton County clerk Donnie Davis said Tuesday that after his staff had reviewed between 700 and 800 signatures, invalidating about 25 of them for various reasons, the petitions were returned to King because state law forbids his office from receiving signed petitions in "batches."
Metro on 07/30/2014