Supreme Court orders SOS to continue counting marijuana amendment signatures

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered the secretary of state’s office to continue counting signatures for an amendment to expand medical marijuana.

The high court on Wednesday ordered the secretary of state to continue validating roughly 18,000 signatures collected to put the amendment on the ballot. Those signatures had previously been thrown out over a paperwork issue, meaning votes on the amendment in November wouldn’t count.

Wednesday's order says Thurston must continue counting signatures until slightly exceeding the threshold of 90,704 signatures needed to place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. Earlier this week, Thurston said some signatures collected during a 30-day "cure period" in August should not be counted, meaning the amendment didn't meet the threshold. The group behind the amendment filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on Tuesday.

The signatures were disqualified because they were collected by paid canvassers. The group behind the amendment, Arkansans for Patient Access, hired a third-party company to then hire paid signature-gatherers. Representatives for the company, instead of the amendment sponsor, then signed off on some required paperwork for canvassers, in violation of state law.