Arkansas Allows Cannabis Legalization Campaign to Collect E-Signatures

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that cannabis legalization activists can collect petition signatures electronically as part of their campaign to put the question to voters in November, KATV reports. The ruling comes after state officials shut down the signature-gathering process for petitions in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite the pandemic, the group has to submit around 89,000 signatures by July 3. Arkansans for Cannabis Reform Executive Director Melissa Fults said the organization has collected about 23,000 so far, noting that they “had just gotten money to hire paid canvassers like two weeks before” the coronavirus pandemic shut down most of the country’s economy and led to stay-at-home orders.

In addition to the push to gather signatures electronically, the group is also planning a signature-gathering campaign though the mail.

“One thing we’re talking about is next week sending out a letter, we actually have a list of everyone that signed both of the marijuana initiatives in 2016, so what we’re going to try to do is send a letter with a self-addressed stamped envelope a legal-sized signature sheet to all of these people and ask them as soon as you get this, please sign it and return it.” – Fults to KATV