LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The deadline to hand in petitions that could put Arkansas laws to a vote is just weeks away, and the groups behind those ballot initiatives are strengthening their efforts to get enough signatures in time.
State laws people want changed can be put to a vote, but first, a petition must get more than 90,000 signatures with representation from at least 50 counties.
This year, there's a record number of petitions, and with the deadline to submit signatures getting closer, the efforts for and against these issues are getting stronger.
As summer events pop up in Little Rock this year, people can expect to see many more individuals with clipboards. They're not asking for a vote or who you're voting for but rather, if you will help get something on the ballot.
Kristin Stuart works for Indivisible Little Rock Central Arkansas, an activist group hoping to collect thousands of signatures on various ballot issues before July 5.
"I know [the] abortion [amendment] is about 75% of the way [to the signature goal]," Stuart said. "This wouldn't make it law. This would just guarantee that it is on the ballot in November so that Arkansans can have a voice and a vote."
Indivisible Arkansas supports several other ballot initiatives, including education, the pink tax, freedom of information law and medical marijuana.
But not everyone supports these issues going to a vote, including the conservative group Family Council.
"We are opposed to the abortion measure and the marijuana measure, and we're right now urging people not to sign the petition," Family Council Executive Director Jerry Cox said.
Family Council has organized its own volunteers to push against the initiatives alongside publishing the names of canvassers.
"If our volunteers in a city out somewhere around the state know that there are paid canvassers in their community, then they can be on the lookout," Cox said. "They can actually go to the very same events. It's their constitutional right, and they can urge people not to sign the petition and make their case."
However, canvassers like Stuart don't plan to slow down any time soon, nor does the opposition, as election-year efforts heat up early.
"We are in favor of people being able to put things on the ballot, and we are in favor of people being able to oppose it," Cox said. "That's freedom. That's democracy."
All petitions are due to the state by July 5. The state will then verify the signatures to determine what will go on the ballot.