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Arkansas Senate Committee Advances Constitutional Amendment Tightening Ballot-initiative Rules
Summary
A Senate committee voted to advance a constitutional amendment that would raise the legislative vote threshold and county-validation requirements for citizen initiatives, remove the cure period for petition defects, and move submission and challenge deadlines; supporters say it prevents last-minute ballot changes, critics say it leaves fraud and paid-canvasser issues unaddressed.
An Arkansas Senate State Agencies & Gov't Affairs committee on Tuesday advanced a proposed constitutional amendment (referred to in testimony as HJR 8 1008) that would tighten the citizen-initiative process by changing vote thresholds, county validation requirements, cure-period rules and filing deadlines.
The amendment would require three-fifths approval in both the House and Senate to adopt constitutional amendments (replacing the current simple-majority standard), increase the number of validating counties required to put an initiative on the ballot from 15 to 45, remove the existing 'cure period' that permitted later fixes to petitions, and move the signature-submission deadline to Jan. 15 with an April 15 deadline for legal challenges, proponents said.
Supporters, including bill sponsor Senator Pitcher, said the date changes are intended to give the Secretary of State and the courts time to resolve disputes well before the November…
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