Arkansas Attorney General Rejects Ballot Title for Failing to Comply with New Readability Law

Legislation,

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office rejected a proposed ballot measure on Monday for failing a new readability standard the state legislature recently implemented.

We have written repeatedly about how Arkansas’ ballot initiative process has become the opposite of what it was intended to be. Instead of giving everyday people a way to enact their own laws, special interests have hired people to circulate petitions to place misleading, deceptive, and poorly written measures on the ballot in Arkansas.

Act 602 of 2025 by Rep. Ryan Rose (R — Van Buren) and Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) helps address this problem by requiring ballot initiative titles to be written at or below an eighth grade reading level.

The Arkansas Legislature passed Act 602 earlier this year, and the law took effect as soon as Gov. Sanders signed it on April 14.

A ballot title is supposed to accurately summarize a measure so voters can decide if they support or oppose it. Act 602 requires these summaries to be written at or below an eighth grade level, according to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula, which is a common readability standard the U.S. military and other institutions use.

Act 602 is similar to legislation enacted in other states to help make sure ballot titles are easy for voters to read and understand. It is a good law that will help address deceptive or misleading ballot initiatives in Arkansas.

On Monday, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin rejected the ballot title of a proposed constitutional amendment, because the summary did not comply with Act 602.

The amendment would effectively prevent the legislature from regulating the initiative process. The measure’s ballot title — or summary — was several hundred words long, and it was written above a twelfth grade reading level.

It’s good to see Act 602 working to make sure ballot measure summaries are easy for voters to read and understand, and we appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office properly enforcing this good law.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Arkansas A.G. Appeals to Shield Kids Online

Social Media, ,

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin will ask the Eighth Circuit to let the state protect children on social media, according to court documents.

In 2023 the Arkansas Legislature passed the Social Media Safety Act. This good law by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Jon Eubanks (R – Paris) requires major social media companies to ensure minors don’t access social media platforms without parental consent. A social media company that violated the law could be held liable.

In response, tech giants — such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok — asked a federal court to strike down the Social Media Safety Act as unconstitutional.

In March U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville issued a final order blocking the State of Arkansas from enforcing the Social Media Safety Act. Among other things, Judge Brooks’ ruling claims that Arkansas’ Social Media Safety Act is unconstitutionally broad and vague.

On May 2, Attorney General Tim Griffin appealed Judge Brooks’ ruling to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Appealing the decision will give a higher federal court the opportunity to review the case and reverse the judge’s order.

The truth is there’s mounting evidence that — by design — social media platforms are not appropriate for children.

TikTok has long been under fire for serving kids a steady “diet of darkness” online and struggling to protect private user data from entities in China, such as the Chinese Communist Party.

The A.G.’s legal team has filed documents in other court cases alleging that platforms like Facebook and Instagram are built around algorithms intentionally designed “to exploit human psychology and foster addiction to maximize users’ screen time,” and that this exploitation is especially true of young users with developing brains.

Social media platforms are more than just websites or phone apps. These are multimillion dollar businesses. The adults who own and profit from these companies have a responsibility to protect children on their platforms — and they should not be able to register children as users and let those children post photos and videos on their platforms without parental consent.

Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold social media giants accountable and protect children online than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin. We appreciate his willingness to appeal to the Eighth Circuit, and we are confident our federal courts ultimately will let Arkansas protect children on social media.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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