LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The deadline is fast approaching for petitions leading to Arkansas ballot amendments to be turned in, and the preparations to receive hundreds of thousands of signatures are already underway.
With a record number of petitions expected, Chris Powell and the rest of the staff at the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office have been preparing for a very busy Friday.
"Aside from all the election staff that will be supervising this process, we're bringing in several dozen temporary workers,” said Powell, the Secretary of State’s Press Secretary.
That extra help will fan out over three rooms in the Arkansas State Capitol, which will get to work as the petitions arrive. However, they’ll do more than just count signatures.
There are several things they need to check by August 22, which is when the ballots have to be finalized.
"Are the forms notarized?” Powell said. “Have they been filled out correctly, and all of that. And also, are all the people who have signed registered voters?"
Then the counting gets serious. The proposed constitutional amendments need more than ninety thousand legitimate signatures.
The drives that propose new state laws need about seventy-two thousand signatures for voters to get to make the choice in November.
Those numbers have had people like Trevor McGarrah spending Independence Day at the capitol, looking to get those last few signatures.
"So July 5, we have to have everything in,” said McGarrah, who’s running for the Arkansas House of Representatives in District 58. “Emotions are running high. All of us are very passionate about all of these."
However, not everyone is for the petitions. Opposition could also be found encouraging people not to sign— specifically, the amendment to expand abortion access.
"This amendment is terribly extreme for Arkansas.,” said Erin Hogan with the Family Council. “Arkansas has an excellent law on the books right now. It's a ban on abortion, except to save the life of the mother."
Organizers of the education drive and the abortion amendment went into the holiday short of the number but hopeful of closing the gap.
On Friday, they’ll begin to learn which ones made it onto the ballot.
"Just to make sure that everything that's on there is supposed to be on there and is official,” Powell said.