Arkansas officials have given more time to a campaign behind a medical marijuana expansion initiative to collect signatures to qualify for the November ballot after their initial submission came up short.
While Arkansans for Patient Access (APA) submitted nearly 110,000 signatures to secure ballot placement earlier this month, Secretary of State John Thurston (R) sent a letter to the campaign on Wednesday notifying them that they had an “insufficient” number of valid petitions.
“No less than” 77,000 of the submissions are valid, Thurston said, meaning the campaign will need another roughly 14,000 to meet the 90,704-signature threshold to get on the ballot.
Activists now have 30 more days to collect the remaining signatures for the measure.
The campaign has continued signature gather since its initial turn-in, and advocates are confident they will not only meet the requirement but that Arkansans will then pass the proposal with at least “60 percent” of the vote, Melissa Fults, spokesperson for the campaign, told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday.
“Our volunteers are the heroes,” she said of the signature gathering effort.
The proposal is principally aimed at building upon the state’s existing medical cannabis program, which was created under an earlier voter-approved measure. It would
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