On Wednesday the Arkansas Senate passed several good bills by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) strengthening Arkansas’ ballot initiative laws and addressing petition fraud:
- 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.
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. It’s simply too easy for powerful special interests to buy their way to the ballot by hiring aggressive petition canvassers or spending millions of dollars on deceptive advertising for misleading measures.
Pro-life leaders gave committee testimony this week 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.
If the Arkansas Legislature does not enact good laws that bring accountability and transparency to the ballot initiation process, these problems will simply continue to get worse.
The bills now go to the Arkansas House of Representatives for consideration.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
