Arkansas election officials have rejected petitions submitted for an abortion-rights ballot measure that organizers hoped to put before voters this fall in a predominantly Republican state. The secretary of state’s office cited the failure of the group to submit required statements regarding paid signature gatherers as the reason for the rejection.
The petitions, submitted by supporters of the proposal, totaled more than 101,000 signatures. However, the office determined that even if the signatures from volunteers were accepted, the total fell short of the required amount of at least 90,704 signatures from registered voters.
