Petition to allow a wet/dry alcohol sales vote in Randolph County comes up short

Voters in Randolph County will not be allowed to decide if alcohol can be sold in their county during the General Election this November.

Randolph County Clerk Rhonda Blevins determined that only 3,452 of the more than 4,000 signatures submitted by Keep Revenue in Randolph County passed legal muster, she told Talk Business & Politics late Friday afternoon (Aug, 12), about 30 minutes before her state mandated deadline to make a decision.

Arkansas’ law requires 38% of registered voters in a county to sign a petition to allow a wet/dry vote, meaning at least 3,813 voters had to sign. That left the initiative 361 signatures short. Keep Revenue in Randolph County was spearheaded by former local attorney Linda Bowlin, who said earlier this week her organization might file a lawsuit if the requisite number of signatures were not accepted by Blevins.

Bowlin told Talk Business & Politics early Friday evening that she was busy pouring over the petitions at the Clerk’s Office, and wouldn’t be immediately able to discuss her organization’s next move. At least 169 signatures were tossed because the signer lived in another county. State law allows all petitions on a sheet with an out of jurisdiction signer to be tossed. The group had five signatures per sheet, meaning more than 800 could have been struck just by this one method.

The county clerk said she is aware of the possibility of a lawsuit and the possible political ramifications of her findings. The signatures that were struck were not done so because of political pressure, or any other factor, she said. Those signatures were not accepted because of errors, the signer didn’t live in the county, or other problems that invalidated the signatures, she said.

“I am satisfied with the work we’ve done … we have verified everything we possibly could,” she said. “We’ve done our job. I’ve spoken with several attorneys and we’ve done everything right.”

Another group, Keep Randolph County Safe, had fought the ballot initiative. Its chairman, Amy Rice, didn’t return repeated phone calls for comment. The group raised $8,000 to fight the proposal, according to filings with the Arkansas Ethics Commission. The filings show that the Greene County Beer Association in Paragould donated $7,000 to the cause, and another $1,000 was donated by Sportsman’s Liquor in Ravenden, which is also outside Randolph County.

Keep Randolph County Safe had about $800 in the bank as of its July filing. The group spent most of their money with Complete Campaign Services in Jonesboro. If a lawsuit challenging the validity of the dismissed signatures is filed, it will have to be soon, but local officials were not sure exactly how soon it would have to be resolved to ensure it would appear on the ballot.

Proponents of the legalization efforts touted the county’s lost revenues as a motivation to drive alcohol sales in the county. A University of Arkansas survey revealed that the county would have about $3.3 million in retail alcohol sales each year, and the county and the city of Pocahontas would collect about $107,000 a year in sales tax, combined. It would create at least 19 jobs, and have another $1.3 million in other economic impacts.