Pro-wet group enters suit on Saline County petition

Friday, August 15, 2014

A group backing alcohol sales in Saline County has entered the ring.

The group -- Our Community, Our Dollars -- became an intervenor Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the certified petition that allows voters to decide in the Nov. 4 election whether to permit alcohol sales in Saline County.

Attorney Elizabeth Robben Murray, representing three Saline County residents, sued the county clerk's office last week, contending the petition didn't include the required enacting clause and had an undisclosed amount of invalid signatures for various reasons.

The new intervenor didn't waste any time.

After Saline County Circuit Judge Grisham Phillips granted the status, Our Community, Our Dollars -- backed by Wal-Mart, Kum & Go and other retailers -- asked the judge to dismiss the suit. The complaint "consists almost entirely of empty generalities and conclusions of the law," according to court documents.

The suit's plaintiffs have said the clerk's office "erroneously accepted" some signatures, alleging forged signatures, canvassers signing their own petitions and residents signing the petition on the same day they registered to vote, among other things.

But the plaintiffs have not provided a list or number of the signatures they are challenging, identified "a single specific signature" that they claim is invalid or gave "a specific basis of challenge for any specific signature," said the group's attorney, John Baker.

Baker has also contended that three of Arkansas' laws are unconstitutional.

Article 5 Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution mandates the courts to try the matter "at once" if the sufficiency of a petition is challenged. But if the courts don't decide before the election, it should not prevent the measure to be placed on the ballot.

Arkansas Code Annotated 3-8-205 (d) et seq. sets election dates 65 to 90 days after a judge -- whether in circuit court or the state's highest court -- makes a decision on the appeal. The laws, Baker said, are "statutorily created delay mechanisms" that conflict with the state constitution.

Petitions should count only "legal votes" and cannot be deemed invalid if they have more signatures than required, the constitution states. Arkansas Code Annotated 7-9-126 (b) et seq. -- which excludes signatures or part of the petition under certain circumstances, including the case where the canvasser's verification is not notarized -- also runs counter to the state's constitution, Baker contends. Most of the plaintiffs' lawsuit stems from that code.

Baker is also contending the state constitution and Arkansas Code Annotated 14-14-915 (d) vary on who has the burden of proof. The constitution says the group "attacking the validity" of the petition does, but state law states that the party backing the validity of the petition does.

That same state law -- which allows petitioners to collect more signatures for 10 more days "upon notification of insufficiency of the petition" -- violates First Amendment rights, Baker said.

The legal battle stems from Our Community, Our Dollars' petition, which County Clerk Doug Curtis certified on July 31.

The group initially submitted 25,917 signatures on July 7, but the clerk's office said 4,406 were not valid. The group turned in 6,738 more signatures July 28, allowing it to reach the threshold to place the measure on the ballot.

A measure needs 38 percent of registered voters' signatures to make the ballot.

Curtis certified that the group had 73 more signatures than the required 25,580 three days later.

Saline County residents last voted on an alcohol-sales measure on Feb. 11, 1936. At that time, 431 residents voted for it and 620 voted against it.

The three plaintiffs said the petitions never included an enacting clause and have also asked for an expedited hearing to take place on or before Monday. As of late Thursday, the judge had not set a hearing date.

The intervenors are also moving expeditiously, asking the judge to shorten the normal 30-day response period for receiving evidence. Baker filed a motion for discovery Thursday.

County Attorney Clay Ford hadn't responded to the suit late Thursday. He has said some of the laws the plaintiffs cited in the suit could be clarified.

Murray, the plaintiffs' attorney, who works with the Friday, Eldredge & Clark law firm in Little Rock, is also working to dismantle statewide efforts to place the wet-dry issue on ballots in Arkansas' 75 counties. She's asked Secretary of State Mark Martin not to certify a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize alcohol sales statewide because the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment was submitted less than four months before the Nov. 4 election.

Supporters for the statewide measure have until 5 p.m. Aug. 18 to gather the necessary 78,133 signatures.

Metro on 08/15/2014