The Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its 4-3 ruling on Dec. 12 directing Secretary of State John Thurston to count all the signatures of registered voters submitted for a proposed referendum on a 2019 law that allows optometrists to perform a broader range of eye surgeries.
Thurston’s office had not counted all the signatures because of another law enacted this year — Act 376 of 2019 — that changed requirements for canvassers, those who circulate petitions.
But the divided state Supreme Court said Act 376 contained a defective emergency clause, so the new requirements weren’t in effect when the committee submitted its signatures on July 23.
The Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee and its leader Vicki Farmer on Monday filed a petition for a rehearing with the court to call attention to an error of law contained in the court’s opinion, according its filing.
The court’s opinion did not acknowledge or adhere to the court's precedent in the case of Arkansas True Grass vs. Rutledge, which recognized Act 376 as immediately effective based on its emergency clause, according to Arkansans for Healthy Eyes’ filing.
Arkansans for Healthy Eyes said the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee that proposed the referendum failed to comply with the law as it existed before Act 376 and failed to comply with the law as set forth in Act 376, so the referendum effort must fail in either case.
Chris Powell, a spokesman for the Secretary of State, said on Monday that the recounting has begun and will likely "be completed within the next couple weeks." He declined to comment on the request for a rehearing.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.