Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, presents bills he said would increase the integrity of the state’s ballot measure process to the Arkansas Senate on Feb. 12, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday approved legislation to regulate how canvassers collect signatures for ballot measures.
While lead sponsor Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, said his bills would bring a higher level of integrity to the petition-gathering process, opponents argued the proposed requirements and criminal penalties attached to not meeting some of those conditions would deter many Arkansans from participating.
Under Article 5 Section 1 of the state Constitution, Arkansans can propose laws and constitutional amendments or repeal state laws through the initiative and referendum process, which requires citizens to collect a certain number of signatures that must be certified by state officials before being placed on the ballot for a vote.
Sen. Tyler Dees, R-Siloam Springs, noted that only about half of states have a direct democracy process like Arkansas. He asked if it should be difficult to change the state’s constitution and if passing these bills would “strengthen the voice due to the accuracy of the process.”
Hammer agreed and said he’s worked closely on these bills with the secretary of state’s office, “the frontline for receiving complaints” about the ballot initiative process.
“The value in what we are about to do here is that we are putting those safeguards and those guardrails to protect it so that at the end of the day, at the end of the discussion, when everything is said and done, what we have to walk away from this event from is saying have we done what we are supposed to do to protect the integrity of that signature that has been asked for, but also has been given on a document that is going to be part of a permanent record,” Hammer said.
Arkansas’ elections are overseen by the secretary of state, a position Hammer is seeking in the 2026 general election.
Many of the harms cited over the last two days, such as people signing a petition twice or canvassers misleading signers about the content of a petition, are already against the law — so if there’s a problem, it’s a matter of enforcement, not adding more laws on the books, Little Rock Democrat Sen. Clarke Tucker said. Continuing to pass these types of laws cumulatively add up to put “a major chokehold on the people’s ability to get things on the ballot,” Tucker said.
“Our state motto is Regnat Populus, the people rule,” he said. “And if we keep passing these bills, we need to change our motto to Regnat Imperium, the government rules.”
Labeling the bills as “another unnecessary barrier” designed to intimidate and discourage Arkansans from engaging in the democratic process, Sen. Jamie Scott, D-North Little Rock, said Senate Bill 207, which would require canvassers to disclose to signers that petition fraud is a misdemeanor, “disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.”
“As a Black woman and a minority in this chamber, I’m going to always speak up for my community who have faced generations of voter suppression tactics, disguised as reforms,” Scott said. “From literacy tests, to poll tax to voter laws, we have seen this strategy before, and this is nothing new. So we can’t ignore the historical parallels that we’re facing.”
Hammer disagreed that his bills would restrict participation or make the ballot initiative process more difficult.
“What I think it will do is make sure that every one of those voices that are represented in every one of those signatures on those forms will have been held to the highest standards and given the greatest respect of integrity as far as the process to preserve that every signature counts just like every vote counts, and you can sign it knowing that it is going to be honored exactly that way,” Hammer said.
The Senate approved four other initiative-process bills, mostly along party lines:
- Senate Bill 208 would require canvassers to request a photo ID from potential signers.
- Senate Bill 209 would disqualify signatures collected by canvassers if the secretary of state finds “by a preponderance of evidence” that they violated state law collecting the signatures.
- Senate Bill 210 would require potential signers to read the ballot title of a petition or have it read aloud to them in the presence of a canvasser. It would also make it a misdemeanor for a canvasser to accept a signature from people who have not read the ballot title or had it read aloud to them in the presence of a canvasser.
- Senate Bill 211 would require canvassers to file an affidavit with the secretary of state certifying they complied with the Arkansas Constitution and state laws related to canvassing, perjury, forgery and fraudulent practices in the procurement of petition signatures. Signatures submitted without the affidavit would not be counted.
All five bills contain an emergency clause, and if approved by the Legislature, would go into effect immediately upon the governor’s signature.
SB 209 and SB 210 failed to receive the two-thirds majority vote required to pass the bills’ emergency clause. The Senate approved Hammer’s motion to expunge the votes by which those emergency clauses did not pass and to hold them in the Senate instead of transmitting them to the House.
SB 209 generated questions from Dees, who voiced concern that the bill would grant the secretary of state the authority to decide if there was fraud based on their determination of importance.
Hammer said “on the basis of the preponderance of evidence” would protect signers in the event that the secretary of state made an improper determination. It would also protect the secretary if there was validity in their assessment, but these issues are often decided in court, he said.
Dees was among five Republicans who joined all six Democrats in voting against SB 209.
Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, also voted against SB 209 and questioned SB 211’s requirement to submit an affidavit to the secretary of state. Under the proposed law, Hickey asked if there would be allowances for canvassers who are unable to meet this requirement because they’re incapacitated or die that would prevent all the signatures they collected from being thrown out.
Hammer promised to amend the bill should it advance, because it’s “the fair and right thing to do.”
SB 207, 208 and 211 will next be heard by a House committee.
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