LITTLE ROCK -- A federal judge has scheduled a trial Wednesday on a lawsuit by two Arkansans who want more time to submit signatures of registered voters to enable them to gain access to general-election ballots as independent candidates.
Dan Whitfield of Bella Vista, who wants to run for the U.S. Senate, and Gary Fults of Hensley, who wants to run for the District 27 seat on the state House of Representatives, say social-distancing restrictions that followed Gov. Asa Hutchinson's March 11 declaration of a statewide emergency, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, severely hampered their efforts to collect an adequate number of signatures by the May 1 deadline.
In a lawsuit filed May 1, they asked U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker to block Secretary of State John Thurston from enforcing the deadline, and to allow them to submit a smaller number of signatures closer to the Nov. 3 general election. They also want Baker to permanently block enforcement of the "unconstitutional early, unnecessary, and vague" May 1 deadline, as well as the 90-day signature collecting period preceding it.
The men say right before the beginning of the 90-day window for collecting signatures on petitions submitted to Thurston's office, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency. That was followed by the declaration of a national emergency, social-distancing recommendations issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and Hutchinson's declaration urging minimal person-to-person contact and the avoidance of large gatherings in Arkansas.
Whitfield and Fults say their ability to solicit petition signatures in Arkansas has been significantly curtailed "because of restrictions and directives as to where individuals and groups of people can gather and circulate among the public."
Enforcement of the deadlines, they say, denies the candidates and the voters who support them full access to ballots, depriving both of their rights to political association, free speech, the right to cast one's vote effectively, equal protection and due process.
Under state law, which the men say Baker should declare unconstitutional, Whitfield had to submit 10,000 valid signatures and Fults needed to submit 286 valid signatures, both by May 1, to get their names on the ballot. They said they had collected about half of the required amount by that date.
Attorneys for the state say other independent candidates haven't struggled to comply with the requirements, and the state isn't required to exempt Whitfield and Fults from "plainly constitutional" requirements.
Baker said she will combine the men's request for a preliminary injunction with a trial on the merits. The parties will participate by teleconference, but the public is free to attend in the federal courthouse while following social-distancing measures. The trial begins at 9 a.m.
NW News on 05/25/2020