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Committee advances package of bills and refers citizens-only voting amendment to floor
Summary
The committee approved a series of house and senate bills on a voice vote and ranked and referred a citizens-only voting constitutional amendment to the full House.
The committee approved multiple bills by voice vote and advanced one constitutional amendment to the House floor after ranking five proposed amendments. The most notable final action routed a proposed constitutional amendment to bar non-citizens from voting in state and local elections to the House for final consideration.
Votes at a glance (committee actions summarized):
- HJR 10 18 (citizens-only voting amendment): Committee ranked five proposed constitutional amendments and placed HJR 10 18 first; committee voted to refer HJR 10 18 to the House floor for final consideration. Motion to pass: Representative Ray; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- SB 343 (state vehicle telematics): Passed as amended after extended questioning (detailed coverage in separate article). Motion to pass as amended: Representative Ray; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- HB 19-25 (absentee ballot witness requirement): Representative Howard Beatty presented an amendment requiring a witness for absentee ballot voter statements with specified exemptions; the committee passed the bill as amended. Motion to pass as amended: Representative Beatty; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- HB 18-91 (judicial ballot title cleanup): Clean-up bill to standardize judicial ballot titles was presented and passed. Motion to pass: Representative Bray; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- HB 13-65 (remove race/gender quotas from certain boards): Representative Carolyn Brown removed one contested section (ethics commission) from the bill and the committee passed the remaining changes. Motion to pass: Representative Meeks; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- HB 19-29 (higher education / controlled language amendment): Representative McLendon presented and filed a technical amendment; bill passed as amended. Motion to pass: Representative Macklindon; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- SB 241 (attendance/bereavement uniformity): Representative Pilkington presented a bill to standardize bereavement leave and the committee passed it as amended. Motion to pass as amended: Representative Rose; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- SB 351 (ethics commission clean-up): Representative Ray presented a multi-section cleanup to ethics and campaign reporting rules; committee passed the bill. Motion to pass: Representative Ray; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- SB 357 (military service credit toward leave accrual): Representative Banger presented a measure to credit documented military service toward state annual-leave accrual; committee passed the bill. Motion to pass: Representative Banger; outcome: approved (voice vote).
- SB 4479 (voter-assistor identification at polls): Representative Hawk presented a bill to require assistors who help voters at polling locations to provide identification; committee passed the measure. Motion to pass: Representative Hawk; outcome: approved (voice vote).
Several other bills and amendments were also taken up and passed on voice votes during the session. In most cases the committee relied on voice votes and “ayes have it” announcements rather than roll-call tallies; the hearing transcript does not contain a roll-call count for these motions. Members noted that contested or technical matters would come back for procurement review or to the Arkansas Legislative Council where appropriate.
