Court affirms County Clerk’s decision to reject paper ballot petition

At a hearing on Thursday, Saline County Circuit Judge Josh Farmer upheld County Clerk Doug Curtis’ decision to reject a petition for “The Hand Marked, Hand Counted, Paper Ballot Ordinance of 2024.”

Curtis rejected the petition on August 16. In a letter addressed to

Justice of the Peace Elect Stephanie Johnson and attorney Clint Lancaster, Curtis says the petitioners failed to obtain the minimum required legal signatures because a “large number” of signatures were collected by out-of-state canvassers.

“I find particularly alarming the effort to obscure the sworn verification statements of 18 out-of-state canvassers to conceal their state residence, with no indication of when the change was made or if the change was made by the individual who made the sworn statement,” said Curtis in the letter.

Saline County Attorney Kolton Jones represented Curtis and made the same argument at the hearing.

The affidavits in question, had the original residential addresses of canvassers blacked out out and replaced with

820 Bill Dean Drive in Conway, which is a hotel, Home2 Suites by Hilton

Conway.

Lancaster argued that state law only requires a person to be an Arkansas “resident” in order to canvas and claimed that the definition of “resident” simply meant to be “physically present” in Arkansas.

When Curtis was on the witness stand, Jones had him read several examples of the affidavits Curtis and his staff deemed ineligible because they believed them to be from outof-state canvassers. All of the affidavits Curtis looked at were notarized in different states including, San Diego,

CA, Maricopa County,

AZ, Texas, Rogers County, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.

Lancaster asked Curtis if he had any evidence to prove that the canvassers were from out of state and Curtis said he used “common sense.”

Judge Farmer agreed with Curtis and Jones.

“I agree with Mr. Jones here, I don’t believe these out-of-state people are residents within the definition of the statute. To me, it would be the same thing if their domicile was in Texarkana, TX and they drove across the state line to Benton, then spent a day gathering signatures then went back to Texarkana, TX, the appropriate address they would have to swear to would be Texarkana, TX,” said Judge Farmer. “The affidavits that were submitted to cure the submission of the petitions, just shows where they actually live. Someone could potentially live in a hotel, it’s not impossible, but it appears these people based on their affidavits when submitted, live at their domicile.”