Proponents of a proposed constitutional amendment that would change how legislative and congressional districts are redrawn said they turned in more than 98,000 signatures of registered voters on their petition on Monday.
The Arkansas Voters First committee, chaired by Bonnie Miller of Fayetteville, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would shift the redrawing of legislative district boundaries from the state Board of Apportionment, comprised of the governor, attorney general and secretary of state, and of congressional district boundaries from the Legislature to a nine-member commission.
Attorney David Couch said the committee turned in more signatures than the required 10% of the total number of statewide votes cast for governor in the 2018 election and at least 5% of the total votes cast for governor in 15 counties. The secretary of state’s office said 89,151 signatures of registered voters are required for a proposed constitutional amendment to qualify for the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
He said he expects the committee to qualify for the 30-day cure period to give the committee more time for signature gathering.
“There are probably 75,000 valid [signatures] in there,” he estimated. “I have got about 8,000 more [than required] for the cure.