Randolph County wet/dry battle will likely be decided in court

A judge will determine if Randolph County residents will get to decide in November if alcohol will be sold in the county.

Keep Revenue in Randolph County, an organization formed to collect signatures to allow a vote, and two county residents, Erik Williams and Michelle Counts, have filed a lawsuit challenging Randolph County Clerk Rhonda Blevins’ findings that not enough registered voters signed the petitions. Blevins told Talk Business & Politics that only 3,452 signatures passed legal muster.

At least 38% of registered voters in a county have to sign the petition to allow a vote, meaning the effort fell 361 signatures short. Williams and Counts were two of the residents whose signatures were not accepted, according to information released. Hundreds of signatures were tossed because they appeared on sheets with signatures from people who lived outside the county.

Non-resident signatures should not be counted, Keep Revenue spokesperson Linda Bowlin told Talk Business & Politics. But, other signatures should be added to the total, she said.

“We believe we have over 4,000 legitimate signatures … we believe the clerk is wrong,” Bowlin said.

Blevins told Talk Business & Politics that state law requires all signatures on those petitions to be struck if one of them is from a person who does not reside in the county. There are five signatures per sheet, and at least 169 sheets were invalidated, according to numbers released, meaning hundreds of signatures were tossed through this process.

The county clerk previously said she thinks her office followed the law, and was impartial in the process. Keep Randolph County Safe, a group that fought the initiative, raised $8,000 from two out of county liquor businesses, according to filings with the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Attempts by Talk Business & Politics to reach the group’s registered chairperson, Amy Rice, for comment about the lawsuit were unsuccessful.

Bowlin, a former attorney, said in 2015 the Arkansas Supreme Court shot down an almost identical state law. In McDaniel v. Spencer justices found that if there is “no evidence of improper motives on the part of the canvasser, only individual signatures are called into question, not the entire petition part.”

The case will go before Randolph County Circuit Court Judge Phil Smith. In 2008, Smith presided over a lawsuit in Sharp County to block alcohol sales from appearing on the ballot there. Smith ruled that enough signatures were invalid in that case, and the petition to allow a vote was denied. Voters in Sharp County did vote overwhelmingly to turn the county wet in 2012.

A hearing will be held later this month. Bowlin said her organization hopes to have the matter resolved before September if possible.

Emboldened by the success in Sharp County, residents in Randolph County tried, but failed to garner enough signatures in 2014. Bowlin, who has family roots in the county, said she doesn’t think voters have decided on an alcohol issue there since the late 1940s.

Proponents of legalization efforts touted the county’s lost revenues as a motivation to drive alcohol sales in the county. A University of Arkansas study indicated 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.

Several voters, including Counts, who had their signatures invalidated, were disgruntled.

“When I signed the petition to put this measure on the ballot, I expected my voice to be heard,” Counts said. “It’s disappointing, and frankly it’s frustrating, to learn that’s not the case.”