Ballot Issue Groups Ask Federal Judge to Pause New Laws
A federal judge now has two requests pending before him that seek to pause Arkansas laws regulating the citizen initiative process.
On July 15, sponsors of a citizen-led ballot issue campaign asked U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks for an injunction on a series of laws (see lawsuit section below) as their lawsuit to overturn the regulations proceeds in court. They submitted testimony from paid and volunteer signature collectors explaining how the new laws negatively affected their role in qualifying proposed constitutional amendments for the statewide ballot.
Save AR Democracy, which is made of up of the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and affiliates from across the state, is collecting voter signatures for a proposal to clarify the impact of the citizen initiative process. They're wanting voters to consider a constitutional amendment that would among other things enact a deadline for challenging ballot titles, prevent lawmakers from changing the Arkansas Constitution, and require a statewide vote on any laws affecting the citizen initiative process.
"But the unconstitutional acts, individually and collectively, so significantly impair plaintiff's ability to gather signatures that the July 6 [2026] deadline will likely be impossible to meet," the July 15 court filing states.
On July 24, Protect AR Rights and For AR Kids filed a second injunction request with Brooks seeking to pause even more laws, including Act 602 of 2025. This law requires citizen-initiated ballot titles to be written at an 8th grade reading level. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has twice rejected Protect AR Rights' proposed ballot title related to the citizen initiative process because the submissions scored at a high school reading level. A third submission is under review.
The request also seeks to pause a requirement that campaigns collect voter signatures in 50 counties rather than the 15 counties mentioned in the Arkansas Constitution. The geographic requirement is currently part of a lawsuit at the Pulaski County Circuit Court.
The request for an injunction came a day after Brooks approved letting Protect AR Rights and For AR Kids join Save AR Democracy's lawsuit despite the group's objection. Attorneys also filed filed their main complaint addressing the original lawsuit on July 24.
Save AR Democracy Request
The July 15 request for an injunction documented how recent laws make it more difficult for canvassers to collect voter signatures. A 2021 law created a list of disqualifying offenses that prohibit people from being a paid canvasser, including all felonies, drug offenses, vandalism, a crime of violence and more. Ballot issue canvassers must now be Arkansas residents and they can not collect signatures before their personal information is submitted to the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office. Canvassers must also now wait to collect additional signatures until the Secretary of State's Office determines whether the campaign qualified for the ballot.
"Each of these restrictions has made it harder for citizens to place paramount issues directly before the citizens of this state," the court filing states. Attorneys for the campaign also submitted statements from past canvassers who say the new laws have deterred them from being part of 2026 campaigns.
The statements include people prevented from being paid to collect voter signatures for statewide ballot measures because of 30-year-old felony convictions or "volunteering as a canvasser feels legally risky and personally intimidating." One testimony included how a person convicted of a misdemeanor in 1998 can be employed to collect signatures for candidates but not statewide ballot issues.
The state has not filed a response yet in court to the request. In a June 20 response to the overall lawsuit, Secretary of State Cole Jester denied that the laws were unconstitutional.
Protect AR Rights and For AR Kids Request
The July 24 request for an injunction mentions how For AR Kids is the sponsor of the Arkansas Education Rights Amendment of 2026, a proposal the Attorney General's Office approved for signature gathering before the legislature passed many of the new laws regulating the citizen initiative process. The group tried to put a similar proposal on the 2024 ballot but didn't qualify.
According to a supplemental filing, the campaign contacted previous canvassers to help with the 2026 campaign.
"Many canvassers indicated that they are less willing to participate this cycle and cited the new laws as a reason," the filing states.
For AR Kids representatives started collecting signatures for their 2026 proposal and found that they could collect far fewer signatures in an hour than they did in 2024 because of the new laws.
"The canvassing regulations hijack that time by forcing canvassers to share the state’s preferred messaging rather than their own, and to take more of a potential signatory’s time than they are often willing to share. Whereas in previous years canvassers would typically spend two to three minutes with a signer, this year canvassers have required at least six to ten minutes to obtain a signature, if not more, as a result of the new requirements," the filing states.
The federal court system uses an online record system that is behind a paywall. Some lawsuit documents that have already been "purchased" are publicly available at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69919853/league-of-women-voters-of-arkansas-v-jester/.
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