Regnat Populus? (Hunter Field Editor’s Note)

Arkansas State Capitol (Shutterstock)

How should the people rule in Arkansas?

That’s the question I’ve asked myself watching ballot initiative lawsuits fly back and forth, as signatures of registered voters have been counted only to be tossed out in short order.

The election is less than three months away, and we still don’t know what we’ll be voting on in November.

There’s a scenario in which only one initiative is on the ballot — a measure to allow the state lottery to fund scholarships for students in vocational-technical schools. It was referred by the Arkansas General Assembly, and will be on the ballot no matter what, which says something in and of itself.

There’s also a scenario in which we vote on three more measures, all by popular referral.

A coalition of Pope County residents opposed to gambling in their backyard and competing casino interests gathered enough signatures to qualify a constitutional amendment for the November ballot that would cancel the license for a Pope County casino. However, a lawsuit alleging canvassing violations has been filed and could result in the measure being tossed off the ballot.

Litigation is also ongoing over a constitutional amendment that would prohibit the state from restricting abortion within 18 weeks of fertilization. Supporters turned in enough signatures to move forward with the initiative effort, but Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston rejected thousands of signatures gathered by paid canvassers over an alleged failure to submit proper documentation for those canvassers.

Medical marijuana proponents continue to gather signatures for an amendment to improve patient access to cannabis because they didn’t turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The group did, however, submit enough signatures to qualify for the so-called cure period. It has until the end of August to gather enough to make up the difference.

Confused yet?

We’ve made the process so convoluted, difficult and expensive. Ballot qualification is mostly only within reach for large corporate interests (see the medical marijuana and casino ballot groups).

Yet I find myself conflicted. It should be hard to amend our state’s guiding document. It’s offensive to me that we gave a pair of casinos an oligopoly in the Constitution. The marijuana industry tried to do the same thing with recreational marijuana in 2022, but voters saw through it.

I won’t pretend to know how to properly balance the people’s right to petition with protecting the Constitution. If I were king for a day, I’d probably try to make the initiated act process more accessible to citizens and less susceptible to legislative interference after the fact because that’s what dissuades ballot groups from offering initiated acts over constitutional amendments.

Whatever the case, our default tendency should always favor the state motto — the people rule.

Email Hunter Field, editor of Arkansas Business, at hfield@abpg.com