On July 17, the proponents of three Arkansas statewide initiatives asked the State Supreme Court to rule that the paperwork they submitted, concerning their petitioners, is not flawed, and that the Secretary of State should proceed to check the validity of their signatures. Miller v Thurston, cv-20-454.
The Secretary of State had rejected three initiatives, without even checking their petitions, because the Secretary of State said their certification about their circulators was flawed. The law says proponents must submit a criminal records report, saying their petitioners have not been convicted of certain crimes. The proponents submitted paperwork saying they had done the criminal background checks. But the Secretary of State said the paperwork should have affirmatively declared that the circulators had not been convicted, instead of just saying that their records had been checked.