Alcohol-sales bid short on names

Judge rules 159 signatures invalid in Saline County effort

BENTON -- The petition to place alcohol sales on the November ballot in Saline County fell short by nearly 90 signatures, Circuit Judge Grisham Phillips ruled Friday in a lawsuit after he disqualified nearly 160 names.

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Phillips delayed part of his ruling, which would remove the measure from the ballot, because he anticipates that the intervenors -- Our Community, Our Dollars, a group advocating for alcohol sales in Saline County -- would appeal his decision. As a result, the ballots will be printed early next week with the alcohol-sales measure on them, Saline County Attorney Clay Ford said.

Whether the votes will count is up in the air pending a decision from the state Supreme Court. If the justices agree with Phillips, the votes will not count. If the justices overturn Phillips' decision, the votes will count.

"The opportunity for voters to vote would not be lost," Phillips said as he ruled from the bench Friday.

The judge's ruling followed the Saline County clerk's office certification of the petition July 31. In certifying the petition, the clerk's office verified the sponsors had 25,653 signatures, surpassing the required number by 73. The measure would have been up to the county's registered voters on Nov. 4 had it not been for a lawsuit filed Aug. 8 by three residents.

The three contended in the lawsuit against the clerk's office that the county accepted several invalid signatures, some of which they said were forged. Elizabeth Murray, an attorney with the Friday, Eldredge & Clark law firm that represents the plaintiffs, also said some of the petitions should be voided because a notary didn't witness all canvassers signing the petitions and because a notary forgot to include a seal or signature.

Phillips deemed 111 signatures invalid mostly because he determined at least one signature was forged on the same petition page. Another 40 or so signatures were declared invalid because they were on petitions that either weren't signed or sealed by a notary. Several others were disqualified out of concerns about voter registration dates and the date a resident signed the petition.

In total, Phillips struck down 159 signatures, leaving the measure's advocates 86 signatures short to make the November ballot. The move came after several days of testimony from those whose signatures appeared on the petitions, notaries and clerk's office employees.

The rub is that the petitions included some 720 valid signatures that the clerk's office didn't certify.

Employees in the clerk's office have testified that they kept an ongoing tally as several people -- working both part time and full time -- checked each signature. Once employees reported more than the required signatures to the county's deputy election coordinator, Darlene Westbrook, they stopped counting, they said.

"I thought once we got to the number we were looking for, we would be OK," Westbrook testified Friday. "We had brought in extra help. It was just saving taxpayer money."

For a measure to make the ballot in Saline County, 38 percent of registered voters -- 25,580 -- need to sign a petition. On Friday, Westbrook said she followed state laws, which don't require the clerk's office to verify each of the extra signatures.

Phillips ruled later that day that the extra 720 signatures would not count toward placing the measure on the ballot. Attorneys representing the Our Community, Our Dollars organization said they plan to appeal to the state's highest court to reverse that decision.

One of the group's attorneys, Marshall Ney, said all parties have agreed that with those signatures, the threshold would be met. Ney said the group also plans to appeal the sufficiency of the complaint.

Other than the crux of the additional signatures, Ney said the group felt good about most of Phillips' ruling.

Our Community, Our Dollars -- backed by Wal-Mart, Kum & Go and other retailers -- initially submitted 25,917 signatures July 7, but the clerk's office said 4,406 were not valid. The group turned in 6,738 more signatures July 28, thinking that the threshold had been met to get the measure on the ballot.

Saline County last voted on an alcohol-sales measure Feb. 11, 1936, when 431 people voted for it and 620 were opposed.

Our Community, Our Dollars also tried for alcohol-sales votes in Craighead and Faulkner counties this year, but suspended those efforts.

The judge said petitions didn't need an enacting clause because the county wouldn't be enacting anything. Phillips also ruled that the signatures collected between the initial submission of the petitions and the notice of insufficient signatures are valid. He also validated signatures that were scratched out.

Notaries are not at fault if they aren't able to witness each signature on the petitions, Phillips said Friday, comparing the job to a teacher watching over 25 to 30 students taking tests.

If Our Community, Our Dollars' attorneys appeal, a new party will be added to the lawsuit: the Saline County Board of Elections, which also certified the petitions to place the measure on the ballot, Murray said Friday.

Murray, who on Friday also filed an objection against the certification of a statewide alcohol-sales ballot measure, added that she was pleased with Phillips' decision over the signatures.

"We will continue to protect the initiative process," she said.

A Section on 09/06/2014

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