Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by an optometrists group that asked Griffen to bar Secretary of State John Thurston from certifying a proposed referendum on a 2019 law that allows optometrists to conduct a wider range of surgeries.
The Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee and its chairwoman, Vicki Farmer, filed the suit Thursday against Thurston and the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee. The Safe Surgery committee is promoting the proposed referendum, which if certified would appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
This suit was filed shortly after the state Supreme Court on Thursday declined a request from the Healthy Eyes committee for the high court to rehear its Dec. 12 ruling directing Thurston to count all the signatures collected by the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee.
Documents from the secretary of state’s office indicate the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee submitted 64,028 valid signatures of registered voters, according to the committee. The committee’s petitions need 53,491 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
The Healthy Eyes committee lawsuit asked Griffen to immediately and permanently prohibit Thurston from counting signatures, certifying signatures or taking any other action regarding the proposed referendum. The suit also asked the judge to declare the eye surgery law — Act 579 of 2019 — was effective on July 24 of last year and remains in effect.