AR Times: “What a mess. As readers of the Arkansas Blog know, last week was a whirlwind for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment, the ballot initiative seeking to reverse the state’s abortion ban.
On July 5, Arkansans for Limited Government, the group pushing the measure, celebrated meeting the threshold for signatures to qualify for the ballot in November — turning in more than 100,000 to the secretary of state’s office. But then, on July 10, Secretary of State John Thurston preemptively disqualified the initiative, citing two paperwork deficiencies. The next plot twist came the very next day, on July 11, when documents uncovered by an Arkansas Times Freedom of Information Act request provided clarity on just what the abortion petitioners had turned in July 5, including a crucial document that the secretary of state’s office had previously told the Times was not submitted….
So here’s where we stand:…”