A Word on the Ballot Measure Rights Amendment

Supporters of the Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment are collecting signatures right now to get the initiative on our ballots this November. I hope every Arkansan voter will consider finding a petition, signing it, and passing it on.

Since 1910, Arkansans have been able to put a question directly on the ballot and let voters decide it. But when the partisan theology of our legislature moved to the right of its own voters, and those voters had the audacity to show up and pass measures the supermajority didn't like, lawmakers in Little Rock decided you could no longer be trusted with that responsibility.

That is why they have been chipping away at your right of citizen-led referendum for years now. Bill after bill aimed at making it as hard as possible to collect enough signatures and clear ever-newer hurdles to get an initiative on the ballot. As recently as 2025, several bills were pushed by state legislators to create new barriers for any person or group to get something on the ballot, and a federal judge has already said much of it is likely unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

But now, the Arkansas Supreme Court has opened the door for the legislature to outright torpedo any initiative that does not suit them. Last December's unanimous ruling means anything Arkansas voters pass through the initiative process can be amended or repealed by two-thirds of the legislature. And because of the supermajority they hold, can undo just about anything thrown at them.

More authoritarian than conservative, these lawmakers champion democracy as long as it fits their definition of democracy. The will of the people only has merit so long as it toes their ideological line. Free and fair, so long as they are winning.

That is exactly why now is the moment. The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment, organized by Protect AR Rights, would put the people's right to initiate and refer measures back into the Arkansas Constitution, where the legislature cannot quietly reach it. The group needs 90,704 valid signatures by July 3 to make the November ballot.

Find a petition. Sign it. Tell your neighbor. Then vote for it in November like the right to vote on your own state's laws depends on it.... Because it does. KMI