The state's requirement for in-person signatures on petitions to place measures on the ballot appears excessive, a federal judge said Monday in a court order.
The order tells the attorneys in the case to confer and work out a schedule for any further hearings.
The order by U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes involves a case that could decide if Arkansas' process of drawing legislative and congressional district boundary lines will go to voters this year for a major change.
Covid-19 pandemic restrictions have made the state's in-person requirement almost impossible to meet, the plaintiff's argue in the suit, filed April 22. State law requires petitions to place a measure on the ballot in November's general election to have 89,151 signatures of registered voters, a number set by calculating 10% of the votes in the last gubernatorial election. The law also requires signatures come from at least 15 of the state's 75 counties.
State pandemic-control measures such as banning large gatherings along with petition requirements banning electronic signatures make it impossible to gather enough signatures and violates the amendment proponents' rights, the lawsuit argues.
"In fact, electronic signatures are commonplace and accepted for all manner of official business, and not only by the state, but by this court," says the order.
"Counsel for plaintiffs and the secretary of state electronically signed the briefing on this very motion, and the court has electronically signed this opinion and order."
Measures to ensure validity are built in to the electronic signing process, the order says. Those safeguards include email notification to the signers.
The nonprofit group Arkansas Voters First wants a constitutional amendment to require an independent commission to draw legislative and Congressional district boundaries. Current law vests the power in three of the state's constitutional officers for legislative districts and in the state Legislature for congressional boundaries.
Having those boundaries set by partisan elected officials leaves the process open to manipulating borders for partisan advantage, the group claims.
Those districts are redrawn every 10 years, after each U.S. Census. The 10-year interval between census takings is prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. A census is underway now with the results scheduled to be complete by Dec. 31.
NW News on 05/27/2020
Story originally published at 10:00 a.m.