Rep. Nicole Clowney (center), D-Fayetteville, asks a question about a bill that would change Arkansas’ citizen-led ballot measure process on the House floor on Monday, March 10, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
Provisions that would let two direct democracy-related bills take immediate effect failed in the Arkansas House on Monday.
The bills won a majority of House members’ support but did not secure the two-thirds majority vote needed to pass their emergency clauses, which would allow them to go into effect upon Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature.
Senate Bill 209 and Senate Bill 210 have faced bipartisan opposition in both chambers. Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, introduced them last month as part of a package of bills related to the state’s citizen-led initiative petition process.
Hammer announced in January that he will run next year for Secretary of State, the office that oversees elections. He has said bills such as SB 209 and SB 210 will protect the integrity of the initiative petition process and discourage fraudulent behavior.
SB 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.
The proposed law “holds the Secretary of State’s office accountable for the determination of ensuring that there is sufficient proof” for disqualifying signatures, and it “holds canvassers accountable [by] requiring them to follow the rules,” said Rep. Kendon Underwood, R-Cave Springs, the bills’ House sponsor.
SB 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.
Underwood said this would limit misrepresentation of proposed ballot measures by canvassers to potential signers. At committee hearings this month and last month, supporters of Hammer’s package of bills alleged fraud and misconduct by canvassers collecting signatures last year for a proposed constitutional amendment that would have created a limited right to abortion. The measure did not make the November ballot after the Secretary of State’s office disqualified more than 14,000 signatures on a technicality.
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Sixty-two Republicans voted for SB 209 while 57 voted for SB 210. All 19 House Democrats voted against both bills, with 10 Republicans joining them to vote against SB 209 and 14 Republicans voting against SB 210.
Emergency clauses, however, require 67 votes to pass in the 100-member House. SB 209’s emergency clause received 65 votes for it, while SB 210’s received 56. House Minority Whip Denise Garner of Fayetteville was the only Democrat not to vote against both emergency clauses, since she voted present on the one for SB 210.
Underwood told the Advocate after the House adjourned that he had not decided what the bills’ next step would be. When the emergency clauses initially failed in the Senate last month, the chamber passed a motion from Hammer to expunge the votes on both so the chamber could vote again. The bills passed the Senate on Feb. 25.
If the emergency clauses do not pass the House before the legislative session ends next month, the bills will still go to Sanders’ desk, and if she signs them, they will go into effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns sine die.
Debate
The only House member to speak against either bill was Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, who voted against both bills in committee last week. He said he believed the intention of the package of bills was to make it harder for everyday Arkansans to have a say in their laws and Constitution.
SB 209 would put the executive branch office of the Secretary of State “in kind of a judicial role” by making it “the prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the executioner” of signatures for proposed ballot measures, Collins said.
On SB 210, Collins criticized the possibility that a ballot title would be too long for some potential signers to have the time to stop and listen to.
“We have to trust the people of Arkansas to sign things like petitions based on whatever criteria is important to them,” Collins said. “We don’t force someone to read a biography of a candidate before voting for them, [and] we don’t force ourselves to read the full text of a bill before signing on to cosponsor it. Why should we force someone who wants to sign a petition to read the petition or have it read aloud to them?”
Rep. Nicole Clowney, a Fayetteville Democrat who also voted against both bills in committee, asked Underwood how canvassers would verify under SB 210 that a signer had read the ballot title, since the bill does not require a signer to read it out loud.
“If they indicate that they’ve read it, that meets the requirement,” Underwood replied. “…We’re not taking a test on this bill. If they say they’ve read the ballot title, then they’ve read the ballot title.”
Clowney noted that signers might already be familiar with a ballot measure if they have read about it online. Earlier in Monday’s floor session, the House passed the bipartisan Senate Bill 188, which would require the Secretary of State’s office to post the certified text, popular name and ballot title of a proposed ballot measure on the agency’s website within five days of the sponsors beginning to collect signatures.
During Wednesday’s House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs meeting, Collins suggested to Hammer and Underwood that they amend SB 210 to require canvassers to offer the ballot title for potential signers to read instead of requiring them to read it. Hammer and Underwood declined the suggestion.
SB 210 passed the committee on a split voice vote with dissent primarily from the Democratic minority. SB 209 passed narrowly on a roll call vote, with 11 of the 20 committee members voting for it.
Arkansas panel again rejects investigative powers for Secretary of State over initiative petitions
Committee debate and public testimony on both bills lasted longer than three and a half hours Wednesday. Opponents of the bills outnumbered supporters and expressed concerns similar to Collins’.
Several speakers said SB 209 lacks due process for signers whose signatures might be discarded by the Secretary of State. Some of the same people, including conservative government transparency advocates Jimmie Cavin and Joey McCutchen, said the same thing about Senate Bill 212, which failed in a Senate committee on Feb. 11 and Feb. 27.
SB 212 would have created an enforcement agency within the secretary of state’s office that could investigate the validity of submitted documents related to elections and ballot initiatives.
Sanders has signed the other three of Hammer’s ballot initiative bills into law:
- Act 218, formerly Senate Bill 207, requires canvassers for ballot-measure petitions to inform potential signers that petition fraud is a criminal offense. The section of Arkansas code governing initiatives and referenda designates petition fraud a Class A misdemeanor.
- Act 240, formerly Senate Bill 208, requires canvassers to request a photo ID from potential signers.
- Act 241, formerly Senate Bill 211, requires canvassers to file a “true 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 will not be counted.
Act 218 received the minimum of 67 votes for its emergency clause to pass the House, and Act 241 required a second vote for its emergency clause to gain enough support.
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