Citizens in Charge

You have full Initiative & Referendum rights. Citizens can pass laws they write or suspend a statute passed by the Legislature by collecting enough petition signatures to place the statute on the statewide ballot for a decision by the voters. Voters can also initiate constitutional amendments by Initiative.

Poll:

See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.

The Arkansas Populist Party endorsed initiative and referendum in its
1896 state platform, and the Democrats followed suit in 1898. But it was
not until a decade later that the Democrat George W. Donaghey won
election as governor and, in 1909, successfully shepherded an I&R
amendment through the legislature. It won voter ratification on
September 5, 1910.

The name Paul Jacob is familiar here in Arkansas, where he led the struggle to get term limits adopted in Arkansas. Then he went national as head of U.S. Term Limits and now runs an outfit called Citizens in Charge.
It seems Mr. Jacob has never outgrown his need to put the people, not the politicians, in control of their government. One needn’t agree with his ideas to admire his commitment — or defend his right to express them.

A Nov. 4 ballot measure that would ban unmarried, cohabiting adults from adopting or becoming foster parents would limit the ability of judges to find good homes for vulnerable children, a group of retired judges said Monday.

Two Sharp County residents have filed lawsuits in attempts to keep an alcohol issue off the county’s November ballot, including one who requested a temporary injunction Monday that would delay the referendum if a judge cannot rule on it by the Nov. 4 election.

The lawsuits, filed Friday afternoon in Sharp County Circuit Court, challenge both the wording of the petition and the signatures gathered by proponents of a move to allow the sale of alcohol in the north Arkansas county.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Tuesday rejected the name and ballot title of a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal a 2003 law that loosened restrictions on what establishments qualify for a private club permit.

McDaniel said the proposal was ambiguous and that the text of the amendment was not included in the request.

“I must therefore return your submission and instruct you to submit the language of your proposed amendment together with a proposed popular name and ballot title,” the attorney general said in an opinion.

They gather where voters gather, hungry for signatures, eager to push their cause through direct democracy. They will be out in force, likely bearing clipboards, for Tuesday’s election.

Poll site canvassers use myriad approaches, but their goal is the same: To fill their petition with as many voter signatures as they can get.

The Arkansas attorney general’s office cleared the way on Wednesday for supporters of a ballot measure requiring government agencies to verify all those seeking public benefits in the state are legal U.S. residents to begin gathering signatures.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel approved the language of the proposed initiated act by Secure Arkansas, allowing the group to begin collecting the 61,974 signatures necessary to put it before voters in November.