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Race is on to get signatures after Rutledge signs off on ballot proposals

Organizers are rushing to gather signatures for hot-topic ballot measures.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Wednesday, May 23 saw several fast-moving decisions by judges and state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. When the dust settled, four groups started preparing for the November ballot by gathering signatures.

It started yesterday morning when Rutledge lost an argument in the state supreme court. By early evening, she signed off on two casino proposals, a measure to raise the minimum wage and a question on how do we redistrict after the 2020 census.

Arkansas voters have seen these issues on ballots before. Now organizers are pushing to get them on ballots again.

“We're going to look forward and focus on gathering the signatures and getting this on the ballot,” said attorney Alex Gray, “Primaries are over. We missed some very good opportunities in that. It's going to be several hundred thousand dollars.”

Gray is the petitioner working for “Driving Arkansas Forward,” which hopes to open two new casinos in the state.

“It's going to be more expensive,” said David Couch, the attorney who won the state Supreme Court ruling on behalf of his measure to raise the minimum wage. “It's going to be more difficult, but it is not impossible.”

Both Gray and Couch have been trying to beat the clock with their ballot proposals all spring. They only have until early June to get the signatures, so they took Rutledge to court, accusing her and her office of dragging its feet in approving their measures.

Cases flew up and down Capitol Avenue in Little Rock with a resolution coming Wednesday night.

Couch said Rutledge was taking too personally a supreme court decision in 2016 to strike two ballot proposals on the eve of the election.

“Her job is not to write a perfect ballot title or one that she knows that the supreme court is going to affirm,” he said. “Her job is to do the best job she can do and the supreme court is the ultimate decider of fact.”

Primary election season ended on Tuesday, May 22, giving way to “signature season.” It's a two-month rush to get enough signatures to clear the next hurdle and actually go before voters.

“Any group proposing a constitutional amendment needs to obtain in excess of 85,000 valid signatures from registered voters,” said Gray, who noted it is not an easy task. The move to raise the minimum wage is an initiated act, meaning it will only need 65,000 valid signatures.

“It's going to be much more expensive now because we're competing with signature collection efforts in other states that we wouldn't be competing with had we approved this 30 or 60 days ago,” said Couch, who said the same professional canvassing company will work for all four petitions.

That will help save Couch’s non-profit backers. He expects the private owners and the Cherokee Tribe behind the casino proposals to be able to absorb the added costs of condensed canvassing.

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