Arkansas Supreme Court Partially Dismisses Casino Referendum Challenge

Posted on: October 15, 2024, 08:29h. 

Last updated on: October 15, 2024, 09:14h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

On Monday, the Arkansas Supreme Court partially rejected a lawsuit challenging a certified ballot referendum set for this November’s election that seeks to revoke a gaming license issued for a casino resort development in Pope County.

Arkansas Supreme Court Pope casino
The Arkansas Supreme Court partially ruled against a legal challenge regarding a measure on the 2024 state ballot that seeks to repeal a casino license for Pope County. The referendum’s ballot title remains in legal question. (Image: KHBS)

If Issue 2 gains majority backing next month, the ballot referendum would amend the Arkansas Constitution to require that only counties hosting local referendums showing support for a casino can be allocated a gaming concession by the Arkansas Racing Commission (ARC), the state agency that regulates slot machines, table games, and sports betting in the Razorback State. Cherokee Nation Entertainment, the entity that ARC handed the Pope County casino license to earlier this year, is challenging how the campaign behind Issue 2 canvassed voters to have the question certified by Arkansas State Secretary John Thurston.

On Monday, the state’s highest court dismissed part of the Cherokee’s claims, including contentions that Local Voters in Charge, the political group funded by the Choctaw Nation, an Eastern Oklahoma tribe seeking to protect its tribal casinos from further competition, paid canvassers by the number of voters they collected. The court also rejected claims that canvassers weren’t properly registered and other procedural errors.

A statewide ballot referendum passed in 2018 authorized commercial casinos in Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, and Pope counties. Voters in Pope were among 11 counties out of the 75 in Arkansas that voted against the casinos.

Court Dismissal

Writing the court’s unanimous opinion, Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Justice Courtney Rae Hudson said the plaintiffs failed to provide adequate evidence for the court to invalidate enough signatures to decertify the referendum.

While petitioners produced multiple videos as proof of an unlawful offer to pay … they never offered evidence of the total number of signatures collected by the 14 paid canvassers recorded in the video,” Hudson wrote. “Furthermore, none of those paid canvassers reported when they were offered $100 for 100 signatures or who made the unlawful offers. An improper offer without more is not enough to invalidate signatures.”

As for the canvassing effort allegedly not delegating its certification obligation “to an agent outside” of Local Voters in Charge — that is, someone who is not an officer, member, or employee of the campaign — the court found that the campaign lawfully met certification obligations by contracting PCI Consultants.

The court’s findings largely aligned with Special Master Randy Wright’s earlier recommendations. Wright, a judge in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, was assigned to preliminarily review each side’s contentions to expedite the high court’s review of the case since Election Day is fast approaching.  

Referendum on Life Support 

The Arkansas Supreme Court’s ruling further lengthens the Cherokee’s odds of having Issue 2 removed from next month’s ballot. The Cherokee’s only remaining hope is that the other contention raised regarding the ballot title language being misleading finds support on the bench. The court is expected to decide on the remaining claim soon.

Issue 2 is misleading, and its sole purpose is to undo the will of Arkansas voters by eliminating the fourth casino license they approved in 2018,” said Allison Burum, a spokesperson for the Cherokees and its associated campaign, the Arkansas Canvassing Compliance Committee.

Local Voters in Charge celebrated the court’s decision.

We’re grateful for today’s Arkansas Supreme Court ruling,” said Hans Stiritz, a spokesperson for Local Voters in Charge. “It’s no small thing for the Supreme Court to unanimously rule that we got it right on the canvassing process.”

Recent polling suggests 42% of likely voters would back Issue 2, with only 28% saying they’re against the referendum. A significant 30% said they are undecided.