On Tuesday pro-life leaders appeared before the Arkansas Senate State Agencies Committee in support of several good bills shoring up Arkansas’ ballot initiative process.
During committee testimony, pro-life leaders Vikki Parker and Wendy Curry gave testimony alleging that canvassers for the 2024 Arkansas Abortion Amendment violated state law and were paid $500 bonuses for “altercations” with pro-lifers who opposed the abortion amendment.
During her testimony, Parker indicated that the allegations were reported to the authorities.
Last year, sponsors of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment hired canvassers to circulate petitions for the measure. Under Arkansas law, petition canvassers are not supposed to let people sign a petition more than once, but on Tuesday Vikki Parker testified that canvassers for the abortion amendment actually encouraged people to do exactly that. You can watch part of her testimony below.
Pro-life leader Wendy Curry also testified that she and other pro-life volunteers encountered aggressive petition canvassers who eventually said they were promised $500 each per “altercation” with pro-lifers, in addition to their regular pay as petition canvassers. You can watch part of her testimony below.
Nationwide, pro-lifers have seen pro-abortion groups use aggressive and deceptive tactics to support amendments that write abortion into state constitutions.
The Arkansas Constitution lets canvassers circulate petitions to place measures on a general election ballot. However, in recent years Arkansas’ ballot initiative process has become the opposite of what it was intended to be. Its original intent was to provide citizens a means of functioning as a “legislative body.” Instead, powerful special interests have used our own ballot initiative process against us.
Tuesday’s committee testimony underscores why states like Arkansas need to reexamine all laws concerning the ballot initiative process. It’s simply too easy for powerful special interests to buy their way to the ballot by hiring petition canvassers or spending millions of dollars on deceptive advertising for misleading measures.
Right now, Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) is sponsoring several good bills that shore up Arkansas’ ballot initiative laws:
- H.B. 1221 making it clear that petition signatures expire at the end of a General Election cycle. This would prevent canvassers from collecting signatures across multiple election cycles and help ensure sponsors don’t submit old signatures that are outdated or more likely to be invalid.
- H.B. 1222 clarifying that the Arkansas Attorney General cannot approve a measure’s sponsors to begin collecting signatures to place a measure on the ballot if the measure conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or federal law. The bill also prevents sponsors from asking the attorney general to certify conflicting measures.
- S.B. 207 requiring petition canvassers to inform people that petition fraud is a crime before obtaining their signatures on a petition.
- S.B. 208 requiring canvassers to verify a person’s identity via photo ID before obtaining the person’s signature on a petition. This helps prevent people from fraudulently signing someone else’s name on a petition.
- S.B. 209 clarifying that the signatures a canvasser collects will not count if the Secretary of State finds the canvasser has violated Arkansas’ laws concerning canvassing, perjury, forgery, or fraud in the process of gathering signatures.
- S.B. 210 requiring people to read the ballot title of the measure before signing a petition. The ballot title includes a summary of the ballot measure. Reading the ballot title helps ensure people understand the measure before they sign a petition to place the measure on the ballot.
- S.B. 211 requiring petition canvassers to file an affidavit with the Secretary of State verifying that the canvasser complied with the Arkansas Constitution and all Arkansas laws concerning canvassing, perjury, forgery, and fraud in the process of gathering signatures.
- S.B. 212 creates the Document Validity Division within the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office to investigate, subpoena, and nullify fraudulent or false documents related to ballot initiatives.
If the Arkansas Legislature does not enact good laws that bring accountability and transparency to the ballot initiation process, the problems highlighted during Tuesday’s senate committee meeting will simply continue to get worse.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
