OPINION | CARMIE HENRY: Voters ignored

On July 5, sponsors of three proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution submitted petitions to the office of the Secretary of State attesting that the number of signatures collected met the 90,704 threshold to be placed on ballots in the November general election.

Five days later, Secretary John Thurston informed one of the sponsors by letter that, without counting all of the signatures, the threshold would not be met. The proposed amendment, therefore, would not appear on the ballot.

Those of us paying attention have witnessed a back-and-forth between the sponsor and the secretary, culminating in a lawsuit filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court. So far the court has ordered the secretary to count the signatures collected by volunteers. Naturally our attorney general, as defender of state agencies in general, has weighed in and asked the court to dismiss the case.