Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston approved the signatures required to put a casino licensing question on the November ballot, but a lawsuit says he was fooled by a fraudulent effort to take away a competing casino’s right to do business. (Image: Andrew DeMillo / Associated Press)

The Cherokee Nation has launched a legal challenge attempting to squash an Arkansas ballot initiative that could invalidate its casino license.

Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB), which recently won a license to build and operate a casino in Pope County, Arkansas, via its Cherokee Nation Entertainment (CNE) casino business, filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Arkansas Supreme Court claiming that signatures required to get a question about casino licensing on the statewide November ballot were ill-gotten and thus invalid.

The lawsuit came a day after Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston confirmed that the ballot initiative had enough approved signatures from the state and each county for an amendment to be put before the voters in November. 

Lawsuit: Canvassers Lied About Ballot Amendment to Acquire Signatures

The ballot initiative, supported by a competing Oklahoma tribe, would do two things. First, it would require local voter approval on the county level for any future casino licenses in the state. Secondly, it would repeal the casino license in Pope County, which was awarded to CNB in late June. 

The lawsuit was submitted by a newly formed group known as the Arkansas Canvassing Compliance Committee (ACCC). ACCC members include CNB as well as Jennifer McGill, who founded Investing in Arkansas, a CNB-funded group opposed to the ballot initiative. 

The lawsuit claims that canvassers fraudulently collected signatures by using deceptive practices. The petition filed with the court suggests that Local Voters in Charge, the group that pushed for the ballot question, hired out-of-state residents to collect signatures, failed to register paid canvassers, and lied to voters to collect signatures.

While the filing makes many allegations, it is short on the specifics of the alleged wrongdoing. For instance, it claims that Local Voters in Charge used “captains” with criminal convictions to train other canvassers, but did not give examples. 

The petition also claims that some canvassers committed misdemeanor crimes by lying about what was in the amendment. ACCC has produced three videos that appear to show people saying the amendment supports casinos in locations where there are no current plans to build such facilities, but the videos don’t directly show the context in which these conversations are taking place.

The lawsuit also alleges that the name and ballot title of the proposed amendment doesn’t accurately portray what the amendment would do. The full name as proposed is “An Amendment Requiring Local Voter Approval in a Countywide Special Election for Certain New Casino Licenses and Repealing Authority to Issue a Casino License in Pope County, Arkansas.”

Oklahoma Tribe Funding Effort to Stop Pope County Casino

Local Voters in Charge has been largely funded by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which operates a casino on the other side of the Arkansas border, only 90 miles from where CNE has proposed building its Pope County casino complex in Russellville. ACCC and other casino proponents have pointed to this, alleging that the movement is about limiting competition, not giving control back to the citizens of Arkansas. 

“While competing out-of-state casino interests have contributed over $9 million dollars in the past four years in attempts to stave off competition under the pretense of giving Arkansans local control,” Pope County Judge Ben Cross said in a statement, “they are, in fact, seeking to deprive our state of new tax revenue, quality jobs, and an entertainment destination.”

Local Voters in Charge has pointed to the number of signatures obtained – Thurston announced that his staff had verified “no less than 116,200 signatures” in support of the ballot initiative – as evidence that this is about what Arkansas want.

“It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that Cherokee Nation Businesses has filed a lawsuit that seeks to silence the voices of 116,000 Arkansas voters who want something that could not be more reasonable: a statewide vote to give local voters the final say on whether a casino should be built in their community, or not,” Local Voters in Charge spokesperson Hans Stiritz said. 

The Arkansas Racing Commission unanimously voted to award the Pope County casino license to CNE in late June after it submitted the only valid proposal for the license. That decision was the latest chapter in a contentious process that dates back to 2018, when Arkansas voters first approved a casino gambling amendment that allowed for two casinos, including one in Pope County.