An update on weekend petition canvassing, which I mentioned yesterday, includes separate contingents of paid canvassers seeking signatures to qualify a casino expansion amendment and a nonpartisan legislative redistricting commission to the November ballot.
At least one more paid effort is in the field: A campaign to amend the Constitution to change primary voting in Arkansas to an open primary, with ranked-choice voting.
Little Rock lawyer David Couch, who filed the ranked-choice voting amendment, says it got a late start but he was still hopeful it would meet the Monday deadline for about 89,000 signatures to qualify. This group of canvassers is also carrying the redistricting petitions.
Under current law, petitioners who submit sufficient signatures Monday will \qualify for a 30-day “cure” period to obtain additional signatures should some be disqualified.
The open primary measure would end party primaries. All candidates would be on the same ballot. The top four finishers in the open primary would compete in a runoff by a combination of how voters ranked their top four candidates. The system wouldn’t apply to presidential or judicial voting.
The Open Primaries Committee filed organizational papers on June 8 and hasn’t yet disclosed financial backing. Its chair is Republican Rep. Dan Douglass of Bentonville. Here’s the full proposal.
I also should mention a grassroots effort based in Pope County to repeal the portion of the 2018 vote that legalized a casino in Pope County, an ongoing legal morass. Without paid canvassers and a short lead time complicated by the pandemic, I’d guess their odds of reaching the ballot are not good.
UPDATE: Arkansas Voters First announced this afternoon they have the necessary signatures and will be turning them in at 11 a.m. Monday at the Office of Elections.
UPDATE II: Open Primaries Arkansas says it will be submitting signatures at 3 p.m. Monday.