Cherokee Nation Files Lawsuit Against Anti-Pope Casino Effort
In what seems to be an unending turn of events, Arkansas's controversial Pope Casino initiative has led to another legal showdown. Critics of the anti-casino proposal have petitioned the state Supreme Court to remove the measure from the ballot.
Cherokee Nation's proposed Legend Resort and Casino in Pope County will feature 1,200 slot machines and 32 table games.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:Filed by Cherokee Nation Entertainment (CEN), the license holder for the casino project, alongside a newly established affiliate group, the lawsuit alleged that the ballot measure campaign aiming to block the casino in the state breached several signature-gathering regulations. The petition also criticizes the language used by the ballot measure as flawed and misleading.
Additionally, the suit alleges that the campaign breached state law by offering canvassers payment or prizes based on the number of signatures collected. It also claims that canvassers repeatedly made false statements while obtaining signatures and that paid canvassers were not correctly registered or certified as required.
The suit, which lists Arkansas Secretary of State spokesperson John Thurston as a defendant, was filed a day after the secretary of state's office announced that the proposed measure qualified for the ballot.
Arkansans must be made aware of this deliberate scheme to openly violate Arkansas laws regarding canvassing and to mislead and confuse voters.
Rival Tribe Fuels Opposition
The ballot measure campaign is backed and funded by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The tribe, using a group called Fair Play Arkansas, started gathering signatures in June, shortly after the CEN was awarded the license to construct its proposed casino in Pope County.
Pope County was one of four areas authorized to host casinos under a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2018. After casinos have been launched in the other three sites, it remains the only location awaiting casino development.
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The campaign only needed over 90,704 valid signatures to place the ballot initiative before voters in November, which could overturn the license granted to the CNE. The group was able to collect the required number of signatures before the stipulated deadline of July 5.
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.
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