THE ARKANSAS BALLOT MEASURE RIGHTS AMENDMENT

Protect AR Rights is taking aim at the 13 new laws that the 2025 Arkansas General Assembly passed—and the Governor signed into law—that stifle our rights to act when lawmakers won’t act for the people. Our proposed “The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment” would block existing laws that interfere with citizens’ right to sign petitions and collect signatures.

Our goal is to protect these fundamental rights for all our fellow Arkansans:

• The rights of citizens to propose ballot measures

• The right of citizens to gather signatures on petitions

• The right of citizens to sign petitions

Simply put, when Arkansas lawmakers and big-money lobbyists won’t act for the people, we think the people should be able to present ballot measures that really matter to our communities. 

OUR RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK!

Arkansas’ direct democracy is under siege. For more than a century, Arkansans have used the ballot initiative process to advance commonsense policies like campaign finance and minimum wage laws when lawmakers fail to act. But as we’ve witnessed, politicians and big special-interest groups will stop at nothing to erase the people’s power.

The Arkansas Legislature has repeatedly attacked the ballot initiative process. Though voters have rejected lawmakers’ efforts at the ballot box multiple times, the attacks persist. Our right to decide on ballot measures has never been more in danger.

If we don't act now, Arkansas will lose a foundational tool of democracy.

95th ARKANSAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

In the 2025 Arkansas Legislative Session alone, lawmakers filed more than twenty bills to limit citizens' right to propose, sign, and circulate ballot initiatives. As intended, these bills serve no other purpose than to eliminate the initiative process:

• New restrictions on signature gathering that require canvassers to read an entire ballot title aloud, or watch a voter read a title, before a voter can sign — despite the fact that the ballot title is already required to be attached to the petition.

• Heightened powers for the Arkansas Attorney General to gatekeep and block initiatives by requiring an eighth-grade reading standard. This standard is nearly impossible to meet. No Arkansas law or measure has ever met such a requirement.

• New laws that require increased bureaucracy under the banner of ballot integrity. These requirements are intentionally complicated and designed to trip up grassroots campaigns and disqualify large swaths of signatures.

  WHY BALLOT INITIATIVES MATTER

Citizen-initiated ballot measures are a crucial safeguard for Arkansas voters. Arkansas voters have used this process to 1) raise the minimum wage, 2) form a state scholarship fund, 3) establish term limits, as well as ethics standards for politicians, 4) create campaign finance reform to limit the influence of big money, 5) expand health care treatment options, 6) and now, defend direct democracy!

When it comes to issues that matter, Arkansas voters aren’t influenced by big-money lobbyists like politicians are. Our state has a proud tradition of using the ballot initiative process to create and sustain positive change. Our coalition is working to strengthen that tradition.