Arkansas Immigration Ballot Initiative Signatures Fall Short
Secure Arkansas: Chairman Jeannie Burlsworth said supporters were about 5,000 signatures short of the 61,974-signature threshold for making the Nov. 4 general election ballot. She went on to say, Secure Arkansas is NOT going away. We didn't get our required number of 61,974 signatures or the 30-day extension, but we're forming a NONPARTISAN POLITICAL FORCE because the illegal alien crisis is a VERY important issue in Arkansas.People may still go to the Secure Arkansas site and register for future information. Despite falling short, Burlsworth said she was pleased with the effort because more than 4% of the registered voters in 26 counties signed the petition whereas, state law required 4% of signatures in at least 15 counties across the state. She said public forums with lawmakers and citizens will be held over the next six months in each of the state's 75 counties in advance of the regular session, which convenes in January. "We're excited about the future," Burlsworth said. "We're going to look at how each county has been affected by the illegal alien crisis."
Postscript: Looking back, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel repeated denials of the Secure Arkansas ballot initiative greatly shortened the time available for Secure Arkansas supporters to collect signatures. One has to wonder if the Attorney General had not had campaign connections from those wishing to keep cheap illegal alien labor, and if he had approved the ballot initiative in a timely fashion, would the results have been the same? Based on the rate of signatures gathered, Secure Arkansas most likely would have secured more than enough signatures if the AG had not denied the initiative so many times. It is unfortunate, that the AG responsible for upholding the rule of law, should have been the person most responsible for the failure to secure enough signatures on a ballot initiative to help protect Arkansas citizens. Elections matter!
Tags: ballot initiatives, Dustin McDaniel, elections, illegal aliens, Secure Arkansas To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 10:01 PM - Post Link
3 Comments:
Your last statement is so true. The attorney general, of all people, should want to help Secure Arkansas insure that laws of state and nation are followed. See the article at this link for just how much AG Dustin McDaniel impeded the progress of Secure Arkansas.
http://arkansaswatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/ag-dustin-mcdaniel-cost-us-31658.html Following are excerpts from that article.
We were told by a national immigration office that most states do not get an immigration initiative passed unless they raise enough money to hire canvassers to get the signatures. Yet in only 39 working days our organization, Secure Arkansas, collected 56,122 signatures to deny certain benefits to illegal aliens with no paid staff, with no paid canvassers, and with practically no budget. That is 1439 petitions per work day. That should tell our politicians how the people feel about this issue. This has truly been a grassroots movement. (We were short of the minimum of 61, 974 by 5,852 signatures.)
Our Attorney General cost us 22 working days by delaying the approval of the ballot title twice. His first refusal to approve the ballot title was April 9, 08 (14 days after it was submitted), and his final approval came May 9, 08. Multiply 22 days times 1439 (the average collection of signatures per working day) and you have another 31,658 signatures or more. Signatures came in faster every week than the week before. It took us a month to reach our full speed.
Isn't it reasonable then to believe that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's delays in approving the ballot cost Arkansans their first big chance to solve the illegal alien problem in Arkansas? The Attorney General has 10 business days to approve or deny an initiative, and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel waited every time until the last hours of the last day to respond. Does anyone think that was not on purpose?
Debbie Pelley
I am one of those who eagerly signed the petition & helped gather more. I believe AG McDaniel deliberately delayed to appease the big corporations and I believe that 96% of Arkansans will remember his actions.
The key word in McDaniel's & Beebe's office is 'elected'. If they will not enact the will of the people, they need to go.
It is unbelievable that the people have to fight their elected officials to get this done.
Coming from Texas, I know the nightmare drain illegal's have on a state's resources.
The moneyline to Mexico and resulting drain on the American taxpayer must stop.
Illegal means just that. If companies break the law, our lawmakers are sworn to STOP them.
Heads up Arkansas, we are about to be overrun w/aliens if we don't do something.
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