LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Supreme Court ended an effort to legalize alcohol sales in Clark County after it found supporters didn't obtain enough valid signatures to put the ballot issue to a vote.
The question will still appear on the ballot today, but votes on the issue won't be counted.
The court found that 40 of the 4,168 certified signatures were invalid, meaning canvassers were 12 signatures shy of the numberneeded to meet the legal threshold.
Rick Mays, an Arkadelphia pastor, and Bill Viser, who teaches at Ouachita Baptist University, filed the lawsuit in Clark County Circuit Court challenging the validity of the signatures.
Mays said while he is opposed to alcohol sales in Clark County, his motivation for fighting the ballot issue was what he thought to be flawed practices.
"I saw some illegal activity as far as the petitions were concerned," he said.
Andy Berry, an Arkadelphia attorney who organized the effort, was hopeful late Monday that he had found a way to try for a special election on the issue.
He was frantically researching to see if he had 10 days to try to collect more valid signatures. He said he would try to get those signatures certified by the county clerk, though he did not cite any specific statutes or case law that allowed such a move.
"Isn't this exciting? Isn't this crazy," he said.
Mays said he would aid in efforts to defeat any such measure at the ballot box.
Tim Humphries, attorney for the secretary of state's office, said he did not know of a provision in the law that allowed for some type of special election in the matter.
The Supreme Court, in the ruling issued Friday and updated Monday, found that signatures obtained from people who signed the petition on the same day that they registered to vote should not be counted. Neither should the signatures on one particular petition that was alleged to havecontained two forgeries, it said.
Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber wrote the opinion for the court.
In the end, that left 4,128 certified signatures, when 4,140 were needed. The law requires 38 percent of registered voters sign a petition to put the issue to a vote.
Berry, who organized a petition drive two years ago, said Clark County is losing out on growth and economic development because it's one of 44 dry counties in the state. Clark County is surrounded by dry counties, andpeople drive to Hot Springs to buy alcohol, he said.
"We have great restaurants here, let's throw in a margarita with that," he said. "We've got a great Italian place, let's throw in a glass of wine with that."
The case at the Supreme Court is 08-1231, James Richard Mays and William Coke Viser v. Rhonda Cole, County Clerk of Clark County, Arkansas, and Morgan A. Berry.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/04/2008