Judge makes it a little easier to collect signatures

Afederal judge’s ruling will make it easier for canvassers to gather signatures for citizen-led initiatives in Arkansas.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in November issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of several state laws related to constitutional amendments, initiated acts, and referenda. An initiated act is a law written by non-legislators that voters pass directly in an election. A referendum nullifies a law passed by lawmakers.

Much of Brooks’ 77-page ruling hinged on his opinion that the laws limit First Amendment-protected political speech. He noted that legislators since 2013 have “enacted a series of increasingly onerous laws regulating the petition process.”

Judges issue preliminary injunctions when it is likely the plaintiffs will succeed and will suffer harm without the injunction. The plaintiffs include the League of Women Voters and Save AR Democracy. The judge allowed two other groups, Protect AR Rights and For AR Kids, to “intervene,” or join the suit.

All those groups are seeking to qualify initiative efforts for the 2026 ballot. The judge still must rule on the case on which he has strongly opined. For now, the requirements are not in effect.

The Arkansas Constitution places a high value on citizen- led direct democracy. In fact, Article 5, which deals with lawmaking, starts with a declaration that the people “reserve to themselves the power to propose legislative measures, laws and amendments to the Constitution.” Only afterward does it cover the elected representatives’ lawmaking abilities. I won’t cover all the activities that fall under the preliminary injunction. We’ll focus on some. Those include laws requiring canvassers to tell potential signers that petition fraud is a criminal offense, to verify a signer’s identity with a photo I.D., and to ensure the signer reads a ballot title or has it read to them. A canvasser who fails to abide by the photo ID law can face a felony or misdemeanor charge; the others are misdemeanor offenses.

Legislators’ stated goal is to prevent petition fraud and ensure voters understand what they’re signing. Witnesses during the legislative process told of instances when canvassers did not represent what they were doing accurately. For example, as reported by the Arkansas Advocate, a pastor’s wife said she was told she was signing a petition about women’s health without being shown what the measure actually did. It was a petition seeking to legalize abortion, which she opposed.

But Brooks worried about the laws’ chilling effect on the direct democracy process. He wrote that volunteers have expressed the fear that they will be charged with a crime for making simple mistakes. They also fear opponents will film them, which has happened, and then selectively edit the footage. For AR Kids reported that some citizens were scared away from signing by the warning that “petition fraud is a criminal offense.” Others might not be carrying an ID or might not want to show one to a stranger.

Another provision requires proposed ballot titles to be worded at no higher than an eighth-grade level, as determined by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula.

That test can make it difficult to qualify a measure for the ballot. Words and sentences must be short. Brooks wrote that an amendment averaging two syllables per word cannot score below 8.4.

Meanwhile, the Legislature did not hold itself to the same standard with the proposed constitutional amendments it submits to voters. For the upcoming election, one of those amendments scores a 19.6.

Brooks did not rule in favor of the plaintiffs on every count. He did not block a law requiring that signature gatherers must be Arkansas residents. He did not block a provision increasing the number of past criminal offenses that would disqualify a paid canvasser from collecting signatures. He also let stand a law barring groups from paying canvassers by the signature. He also did not block a provision requiring canvassers to gather a sufficient number of signatures from 50 counties. Before that law was passed, it was 15.

He still has to hear the case. Regardless of what happens, it still won’t be easy for the groups involved in the lawsuit — or any other group — to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

For a constitutional amendment in 2026, it will take 90,704 valid ones.

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Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 20 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@ mac.com.