Arkansas: Adult-Use Marijuana Legalization Initiative Qualifies For November Ballot

Arkansas State Officials announced that a proposed ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis received enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, reported High Times.
Eddie Armstrong, former Arkansas Democratic House minority leader and head of the activists' group Responsible Growth Arkansas submitted the petitions to the secretary of state’s office last month. Armstrong said they had collected more than twice as many signatures necessary to qualify the proposal for this year’s general election.

Additionally, Kevin Niehaus, a spokesman for the Arkansas secretary of state's office, said that after signature counters reached 90,000 verified signatures, they notified the Arkansas Responsible Growth campaign that the constitutional amendment initiative had been approved for the November ballot.

“Because of the time frame to get this done, they stopped at 90,000 verified signatures and now have moved on to the casino petition,” Niehaus said. “Knowing how many signatures they still had left to go and with it already reaching 90,000 signatures, they felt comfortable saying they made it.”

In July, Responsible Growth Arkansas filed petitions containing 192,828 voter signatures supporting the marijuana legalization amendment.

“It was across the entire state, and it really shows a broad level of support geographically,” said Steve Lancaster, counsel for Responsible Growth Arkansas. “To get that many signatures from Arkansans it can’t be all Democrats, or all Republicans, or all Independents. You need a large swath of Arkansans to get that many signatures. The people want to vote on this and make this decision themselves.”

“We are really grateful for the voters who signed our petitions and appreciative to the secretary of state’s office for verifying our signatures,” Lancaster added.

The ballot title and popular name of the proposition must be approved by the Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners before the measure is officially approved for the ballot. Lancaster said a panel meeting is expected on Wednesday.

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