On Thursday the Senate State Agencies Committee passed two good bills — H.B. 1221 and H.B. 1222 by Rep. David Ray (R — Maumelle) and Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) — providing clarity to Arkansas’ ballot initiative and petition process.
H.B. 1221 makes 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collecting signatures across multiple election cycles and help ensure sponsors don’t submit old signatures that are outdated or more likely to be invalid.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 clarifies 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.
Currently, the Arkansas Attorney General must review each ballot measure to ensure the measure’s title and wording are clear and consistent before canvassers can begin collecting petition signatures to place it on the ballot.
H.B. 1222 would help ensure the A.G.’s office is not asked to approve measures that are unconstitutional or run afoul of federal law.
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.
H.B. 1221 and H.B. 1222 will help clarify Arkansas’ ballot initiative laws. Both bills now go to the Arkansas Senate for consideration.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
