"In fact, the group obtained more — they only needed to get 90,704, and they got well over 100,000 signatures."
HOW much more?. That's a vitally important detail, Robyn. There are always a lot of disqualified signatures on these things, and a less than 10% margin is actually kinda slim even if the officials verifying them are diligent and honest and not looking for ways to throw away legitimate signatures in order to disqualify the initiative. Given that this is Arkansas, you can bet that both officials and courts will be trying to do that.
Here’s hoping that many of the people who turn out to vote in favor of abortion rights will also check the boxes for party that will protect those rights rather than try to subvert them.
I was one of the volunteers who helped lead the other volunteers in getting enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. We had to have a certain percentage of registered voters in 50 of the 75 counties sign the petitions, an increase (from a 15 county requirement that the legislature unconstitutionally passed in 2023. There's currently a lawsuit pending, but we couldn't on the courts, so not only did we meet the 50 county requirement, we got 54 counties qualified. In fact, volunteers got over 84,000 signatures, while our paid canvassers (that we had to scrape money together for because we had no national support) only got 17,000. Is the proposed amendment perfect? Nope. The amendment covers about 98% of abortions that occur. But polling showed that 18 weeks would pass in Arkansas, while 20 weeks would not. We are our own calvary and I'm pretty effing proud of what we did.
Unfortunately North Carolina does not permit referendums based on public initiative. The General Assembly has to write an amendment and vote to include it on the election of their choosing. Since the gerrymanded legislature right now has a veto proof Republican majority it may never come up for a vote here. If you got a million signatures it would not help. And the voters here seem to think judicial elections are not important so often don't bother to vote for judges. With the current estate supreme court having a solid GOP majority that is already reversing some decisions by a Democratic majority without even having a case to work from. The Democratic majority was basically a fluke, stretched out by a couple of Republican justices retiring or taking other posts and the Democratic governor replacing them with Democrats. But even with that majority the Democrats did their usual thing of being too timid in their rulings. Hence the super majority in the legislature despite total votes being evenly split between parties. They only ruled extreme partisan gerrymandering was illegal. It did get us an even split in the US House, 7-7, up from 10-3 GOP for several years (we added one seat in the 2020 census). But that will probably flip to 11-3 GOP soon. At least that is the plan they have already announced.
Message should be made clear to voters that voting to keep abortion legal will be a pointless exercise if they vote Republican on the rest of their ballot. The GOP will ban it nationally in a single non-existent fetal heartbeat.
I'd really like to see less daylight between the coalitions working to get abortion rights on the ballot(s) and Dem governors, senators, etc., if that doesn't cross the line with campaigning.
I think the NY ballot measure was tossed by a wingnut judge in May. I haven't seen anything to the contrary. Granted, we're not at risk here, but codifying it would be the right thing to do.
He should campaign for fossil fuel development and against green energy because hurricanes need to be stronger, and flooding worse and beach erosion more thorough just to stick it to the libs. Jesus told him that.
So, maybe 80% of people were not opposed to abortion as TFG claimed? This can't be true. He said it out loud and in public, so it must, in fact, be true. Everybody knows you can't lie in a campaign speech. Sheesh!
'which will surely come as a disappointment to those who insisted for years that they simply wanted to give decisions about abortion legality “back to the states.”'
"Hey! You fucked up! You trusted us!" stated every christofascist congresscritter.
I find it disappointing that we haven't already been doing that. These people exist entirely on a diet of buzzwords and catch phrases. It would be so Easy to hijack that 'glich/feature
Dobbs is backfiring big-time on them. We should send thank you notes to SCOTUS for getting us all in a tizzy and hysterical. That'll teach 'em
"In fact, the group obtained more — they only needed to get 90,704, and they got well over 100,000 signatures."
HOW much more?. That's a vitally important detail, Robyn. There are always a lot of disqualified signatures on these things, and a less than 10% margin is actually kinda slim even if the officials verifying them are diligent and honest and not looking for ways to throw away legitimate signatures in order to disqualify the initiative. Given that this is Arkansas, you can bet that both officials and courts will be trying to do that.
Ta, Robyn. Let's GOTV for a straight D ticket.
Here’s hoping that many of the people who turn out to vote in favor of abortion rights will also check the boxes for party that will protect those rights rather than try to subvert them.
Your pride is well placed. Kudos!
I was one of the volunteers who helped lead the other volunteers in getting enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. We had to have a certain percentage of registered voters in 50 of the 75 counties sign the petitions, an increase (from a 15 county requirement that the legislature unconstitutionally passed in 2023. There's currently a lawsuit pending, but we couldn't on the courts, so not only did we meet the 50 county requirement, we got 54 counties qualified. In fact, volunteers got over 84,000 signatures, while our paid canvassers (that we had to scrape money together for because we had no national support) only got 17,000. Is the proposed amendment perfect? Nope. The amendment covers about 98% of abortions that occur. But polling showed that 18 weeks would pass in Arkansas, while 20 weeks would not. We are our own calvary and I'm pretty effing proud of what we did.
Brava, Christine. Well done.
Thanks for your hard work!
Bravo- much respect
Republicans have always been in favor of state's rights. It’s people's rights they’re not so crazy about
Especially if said people have vaginas or an excess of melanin or just don’t pray to white Jesus the way republicans do.
Unfortunately North Carolina does not permit referendums based on public initiative. The General Assembly has to write an amendment and vote to include it on the election of their choosing. Since the gerrymanded legislature right now has a veto proof Republican majority it may never come up for a vote here. If you got a million signatures it would not help. And the voters here seem to think judicial elections are not important so often don't bother to vote for judges. With the current estate supreme court having a solid GOP majority that is already reversing some decisions by a Democratic majority without even having a case to work from. The Democratic majority was basically a fluke, stretched out by a couple of Republican justices retiring or taking other posts and the Democratic governor replacing them with Democrats. But even with that majority the Democrats did their usual thing of being too timid in their rulings. Hence the super majority in the legislature despite total votes being evenly split between parties. They only ruled extreme partisan gerrymandering was illegal. It did get us an even split in the US House, 7-7, up from 10-3 GOP for several years (we added one seat in the 2020 census). But that will probably flip to 11-3 GOP soon. At least that is the plan they have already announced.
I don’t even have a D to vote for in my Guilford co district anymore.
Message should be made clear to voters that voting to keep abortion legal will be a pointless exercise if they vote Republican on the rest of their ballot. The GOP will ban it nationally in a single non-existent fetal heartbeat.
I'd really like to see less daylight between the coalitions working to get abortion rights on the ballot(s) and Dem governors, senators, etc., if that doesn't cross the line with campaigning.
I think the NY ballot measure was tossed by a wingnut judge in May. I haven't seen anything to the contrary. Granted, we're not at risk here, but codifying it would be the right thing to do.
DeSantos is doing his damnest to try and kill any ballot initiatives that might make Floridians' lives easier.
He should campaign for fossil fuel development and against green energy because hurricanes need to be stronger, and flooding worse and beach erosion more thorough just to stick it to the libs. Jesus told him that.
I was surprised to learn recently that FL actually does have some oil wells. Some are in the Big Cypress and are owned by Colliers, naturally.
So, maybe 80% of people were not opposed to abortion as TFG claimed? This can't be true. He said it out loud and in public, so it must, in fact, be true. Everybody knows you can't lie in a campaign speech. Sheesh!
Look squirrel
That should help turnout, ....against Trump! YEAhhhh
And downballot
'which will surely come as a disappointment to those who insisted for years that they simply wanted to give decisions about abortion legality “back to the states.”'
"Hey! You fucked up! You trusted us!" stated every christofascist congresscritter.
Reminds me of the fable of the Frog and the Venezuelan arms dealer.
“Arkansans for Limited Government”
ABOUT FUCKING TIME we started using the Republican buzzwords against them
I find it disappointing that we haven't already been doing that. These people exist entirely on a diet of buzzwords and catch phrases. It would be so Easy to hijack that 'glich/feature
You know there are MAGAts that would donate based solely on a name without reading the entire email
Bet I could raise millions with an organization with a name like, “The Freedom Eagle Freedom Society for Freedom.”
To whom do I mail the check?
Exactly right. Trained hamsters don't read the fine print, so to speak
This is the way.
Someone needs to start the Patriot Freedom Eagle Fund to siphon money toward Democratic candidates
I’m Armour Of God level contributor!