| Updated: 8/22/2008 8:20 am |
Published: 8/21/2008 5:57 pm |
The group backing a proposed gay adoption ban says it has enough signatures this time to get it on the November ballot. But even if the Arkansas Family Council has enough signatures the initiative could land in the courts before you vote on it.
The Arkansas Adoption and Foster Care Act faces a likely legal challenge before it will ever reach voters.
Representatives from Arkansas Family Council carried boxes of petitions to the basement of the state Capitol Thursday. Jerry Cox, president of the Family Council Action Committee, believes this time they have enough signatures to get their initiative banning gay adoption on the ballot.
"Back about six weeks ago this petition drive was in jeopardy," Cox says.
An additional 30,000 signatures made the difference during a supplemental filing period granted by Secretary of State Charlie Daniels in July. But it took an extra 30 days to get the extra signatures. Despite the additional needed time, Cox does not believe that is an indicator the measure will fail at the polls in November.
"I think it reflects how much people were paying attention to this initiative," Cox says.
Arkansas Families First is paying attention.
"We disagree with the number of valid signatures that the Secretary of State found," Aimee Berry says.
Berry is part of AFA and also the executive director for the American Academy of Pediatrics. She says restricting who can adopt is not in the best interest of children who need a loving home, many in an overcrowded foster care system.
"The overall picture is bad public policy,” Berry says. “We're filing the lawsuit because we feel as though they have gone around the legislative process and that they are doing this incorrectly."
The proposed initiated act would prevent adoptive or foster care children from placed in homes where there is a live-in boyfriend or girlfriend. The Family Council maintains the act applies equally to homosexuals and heterosexuals. The same group was responsible for spearheading a successful ballot initiative in 2004 defining marriage in Arkansas as between one man and one woman.
If the Secretary of State approves the signatures the adoption and foster care act is ready for the ballot and Cox says the Family Council is ready for a legal battle.
"It certainly is distracting having to deal with a lawsuit, I would rather not have to do that,” Cox says. “But if we do, then we will."
Arkansas Family Council turned in 30,000 petitions Thursday. It only needs 4,000 to be deemed valid to put the gay adoption ban on the ballot.
