Legal Challenge To Alcohol Expansion Amendment Surfaces
by July 22, 2014 12:03 am 124 views
A Friday firm lawyer representing a group opposed to a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the legal sale of alcohol in all 75 Arkansas counties has asked Secretary of State Mark Martin to stop accepting petitions for the measure.
Attorney Betsy Murray, representing Let Local Communities Decide For Themselves, said that the petitions were submitted in violation of state law.
Citing Amendment 7 of the Arkansas Constitution, Murray said the deadline for statewide petitions to be submitted should have been July 4, not July 7, as was scheduled by Secretary Martin.
Amendment 7 says that “initiative petitions for statewide measures should be filed with the Secretary of State not less than four (4) months before the election in which they are to be voted upon.”
The general election is slated for November 4, 2014.
Murray said state law mandates that the petitions were turned in after what should have been a “specified deadline.”
The group pushing for expanded sales of alcohol, Let Arkansas Decide!, has been given permission to collect more signatures for its proposal under a 30-day “cure” period. It needs to submit more than 78,133 valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Give Arkansas A Raise Now, which is pushing to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50, is also collecting additional signatures after submitting its initial collection to the Secretary of State on July 7.