This election season there is an entire litany of ballot issues for Arkansas voters to consider; in fact, there were a total of seven but now there are only four. All seven will still be on the ballot, but the Supreme Court of Arkansas has ordered that only four be counted. The most recent was an initiated act that would legalize medical marijuana, known as Issue 7.
The other two issues that have been ordered off include Issue 5, which was a Constitutional amendment that would have legalized casinos in three counties of Arkansas and the other was a Constitutional amendment that would have introduced tort reform, limiting the amounts that could be awarded in medical injury lawsuits.
The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down Issue 4, a tort reform amendment designed to limit attorney contingency fees and "non-economic damages" against nursing home and medical care providers in medical lawsuits, because they ruled the ballot title did not properly define what "non-economic damages" meant.
Those suing to have the issue struck down raised the ten points, but only one was identified in the court's opinion. However, Justice Rhonda Wood, who has be accused of being philosophically friendly with nursing home owners wrote her own concurring opinion calling for a release of all ten issues.
Justice Rhonda Wood said, "We presumably do not want to "hide the ball" from ballot-title sponsors. These sponsors are entitled to know each of the defects their ballot title contains so in the future, they can submit a ballot title that complies with the law."
The Arkansas Supreme Court also kicked off Issue 5, the Casino Amendment, because they ruled the ballot title did not "adequately inform voters that the amendment allowed sports bookmaking (which is in conflict with federal law)."
Special Justice Warren Dupwe, replacing Courtney Goodson, voted with the majority. Justice Rhonda Wood dissented.
Though Issue 6 (a Constitutional Amendment which would legalized medical marijuana in the State of Arkansas) was approved for the ballot a couple weeks ago, there was still a challenge outstanding against Issue 7 (an initiated act which would also legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas). The main concern was regarding the sufficiency of the signatures collected. Thursday, Oct. 27, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down Issue 7 because they said it "failed to qualify for the ballot" due to "deficiencies in signature gathering." The Court disallowed more than 12,00 signatures, enough to leave the petition drive 2,465 signatures short of the required 67,887 needed.
Justices Karen Baker, Jo Hart, Rhonda Wood, Robin Wynne and Courtney Goodson voted to strike down the measure and Baker wrote the opinion. Chief Justice Howard Brill and Justice Paul Danielson dissented.
The basis for striking down Issue 7 was failure to meet state canvassing requirements. It was ruled that 8,620 of the signatures obtained, were disqualified because they were gathered by paid canvassers and that they had not met rules set out for paid canvassers, including an Arkansas State Police background check.
The court threw out another 3,329 signatures for not having a residential address of the canvassers and the court threw out another 155 signatures where the canvasser supplied a date prior to the voter's signing of the petition.
The court accepted 2,200 signatures on petitions where canvassers didn't properly check a box indicating if the canvasser was paid or not. It also accepted approximately 2,000 more signatures that hadn't been witnessed by canvassers.
The measure needed 67,887 signatures, but the Supreme Court's disallowance of 12,104 signatures left the petitions 2,465 short.
Since Issue 7 has been removed, it leaves only one medical marijuana initiative still on the ballot, Issue 6.