FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 19, 2013
On Friday, Family Council President Jerry Cox released a statement regarding the Arkansas House of Representatives’ referral of Senate Joint Resolution 16.
“SJR16 is a serious issue,” Cox said. “It’s going to have a chilling effect on grassroots petition efforts.”
Cox said the resolution was presented as an anti-fraud measure, but has little to do with preventing fraud. “Petition fraud is already a crime. SJR16 doesn’t make fraud any more criminal. It doesn’t provide more oversight to prevent fraud. All it does it make it harder for citizens to place a measure on the ballot via the petition process. That’s it.
“We don’t try to prevent slander or libel by outlawing free speech. We shouldn’t try to prevent petition fraud by arbitrarily restricting the petition process.”
###
