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Volunteers hosted drive-through signature events late into the evening Sunday and then were back out Monday morning to squeeze out the last hours before the 5 p.m. deadline to turn in LEARNS Act petitions.

Just after noon Monday, July 31, a woman honked as she drove up to Mollie Palmer outside a Bryant gas station.

"Is there a petition here to sign?" the driver asked Palmer, who had set up a chair that morning on a public sidewalk next to a busy intersection to gather more signatures.

Palmer was one of many volunteers involved in the Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES) effort to put the decision around Act 237 in the hands of voters next year on Election Day.

The new education law, among other things, sets a $50,000 base pay for public school teachers and allows the state to pay private school tuition and homeschooling expenses for students whose families opted out of sending them to public schools.

More than 80 private schools in the state have applied to participate in the Educational Freedom Account Program, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. If approved, qualifying students could use state funds toward tuition costs at these schools for the upcoming school year.

Palmer hadn't expected to be out Monday morning but said weekend counting showed the ballot issue group needed more signatures to meet the requirements to make the November 2024 ballot. In less than five minutes during the lunch hour, Palmer had three new signatures to add to the overall count.

To qualify for the ballot, CAPES must submit at least 54,422 valid voter signatures collected from voters in at least 50 of the state's 75 counties. Act 236 of 2023 increased the required geographic distribution of signatures up from 15 counties. (A lawsuit is currently underway challenging the change in requirements for citizens to place constitutional amendments, state laws and referendums on the ballot.)

CAPES had from when the Attorney General certified the ballot title on June 5 until July 31 to collect voter signatures. Citizen ballot issue groups seeking to place constitutional amendments or state laws on next year's ballot will have until next July to collect and turn in voter signatures.

CAPES' statewide volunteer effort over the past few months resulted in over 53,000 signatures turned in to the Secretary of State's Office on Monday evening, according to group statements.

"It is what it is," a volunteer called out as others rushed in last-minute notarized petitions before the 5 p.m. deadline at the Secretary of State's Office in the Riverdale neighborhood of Little Rock.

An hour before, Steve Grappe, CAPES' executive director, had been on social media urgently calling for notaries to help stamp petitions. At that point, Grappe said they needed just over 700 signatures and asked people to show up at the Secretary of State's office to sign petitions.

At 5 p.m., a small crowd gathered inside the office to watch Grappe sign the official affidavit for the thousands of signatures.

"You worked miracles," he told them.

He then announced he suspected the group fell short by about 500 signatures.

"We might have counted wrong so we’re going to let the secretary of state do due diligence," Grappe said.

Staff at the Secretary of State's Office will review petitions to double check the count. The group may qualify for an extra 30 days to collect additional voter signatures. To do so, at least 75% of the signatures submitted Monday must be valid, meaning followed all the required rules, signatures match voter records, and all paperwork is in hand.

If the group falls short of that percentage, the referendum effort is over. The last time voters had a referendum on the statewide ballot to decide was in 1994, when voters decided to keep a sales tax on soft drink sales.