Arkansas groups attempting to put their ballot amendments before voters are coming up on an important deadline.
If you want a certain issue to appear on the ballot for voters in November, you have to get tens of thousands of signatures from across the state. If you want to pass an initiative, that number is over 72,000. If the proposal you are trying to pass amends the Arkansas Constitution, you have to collect just over 90,000 signatures from 50 of the state’s 75 counties.
Groups are about a month away from a July 5 deadline to submit signatures. There are seven groups or people who are pushing amendments and initiatives; six of those are scrambling in the final stretch to collect as many signatures as they can.
That one exception: self-proclaimed car guy David Dinwiddie. His proposition would make it easier to classify your car as an antique. Dinwiddie is resigned to the fact that he just doesn't have the resources to collect all the signatures he needs by July 5.
“I’m not saying it's impossible,” he said. “But for one person to be collecting signatures, you would have to be working six days a week for about a year.”
And that costs money, and a lot of time spent standing in populated places asking people to sign your petition. It can be a lot to ask of unpaid volunteers.
Katie Clark is with the Arkansas Period Poverty Project. They are trying to put an act on the ballot to exempt diapers and menstrual products like tampons and pads from sales tax.
Based on a conversation with a consultant, Clark estimates that collection work costs around $11 per signature. This adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, which most groups collecting signatures don't have.
“It's very difficult,” she said. “Because we are such a small group, we’re very grassroots. We ask people for $11 donations basically so we can just print petitions."
Clark doesn't yet know how many signatures they've collected so far.
“I wish we had a better idea because it gives me anxiety to not know.”
To avoid this problem, a lot of groups are using third-party authenticator companies to verify signatures, ensuring an accurate count and that signatures won't be thrown out later for authenticity issues.
But again, that costs money.
An effort to loosen regulations around medical marijuana has a lot more resources than most other ballot initiatives. The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024 would make it easier to get a prescription in Arkansas. They've raised almost $1 million from out-of-state pro-cannabis groups.
Attorney David Couch says they have about 300 paid canvassers and a private company checking signatures. That can make all the difference since no one has to take off work to collect signatures as unpaid volunteers often have to. The group is also using a company called National Ballot Access to count and approve signatures.
Couch, who was behind the successful effort to legalize medical marijuana in 2016, thinks they’re going to succeed yet again.
“Easiest one to sign,” he said. “People see the green petition and they're more than willing to sign that one.”
He also thinks there is a good chance an amendment about casinos will see the light of day.
That one has a long title: “An amendment requiring local voter approval in a countywide special election for any new casino licenses and repealing authority to issue a casino license in Pope County, Arkansas.”
This means, if approved by voters, no one could put a casino in counties where the majority of residents didn't vote for it. It's the product of a previously passed amendment, the Arkansas Casino Gaming Amendment of 2018, which brought four casino licenses to Arkansas. Spokesman Hans Stiritz explains why he supports rolling the previous law back.
“Three of the counties where those places were targeted voted for the amendment,” he said, referencing casino licenses in Garland, Crittenden and Jefferson counties. “Great, they got what they wanted... Pope County voted overwhelmingly against Amendment 100.”
The group has over $1 million in the bank, and are mostly funded by the Choctaw Nation. They’re also able to pay canvassers to collect signatures.
Another, not-so-financially-lucky group is called For AR Kids. Their proposal would put new regulations on private schools that get tax money, essentially gutting a lot of the provisions in the Arkansas LEARNS Act.
In late May, when they had 45 days left, For AR Kids said they still needed to get 1,000 signatures per day until July 5.
“We're doing forums in communities almost daily,” said organizer Steve Grappe, who was also behind an unsuccessful signature-gathering effort to overturn Arkansas LEARNS. “We're inviting other communities to get involved. We’re having signing events across the state.”
For AR Kids has $4,300 dollars in the bank. So right now, there is no chance of paying canvassers.
The group’s also being out-fundraised. A group opposing the amendment, Arkansans for Students and Educators, has over $600,000 in the bank. Most of that comes from Jim Walton, one of the richest people in the world and heir to the Walmart fortune.
But, Walton also gave $50,000 in support of a different amendment. The Arkansas Government Disclosure Amendment of 2024 would enshrine the Freedom of Information Act in the state constitution. Organizer Nate Bell says they may pay some canvassers.
“We have taken the approach, generally, because our budget is small, that we will hire paid canvassers to fill in gaps," he said. "But generally, we are dependent on the volunteer effort.”
They have raised over $150,000 from a politically diverse group of people, including donations from several small newspapers.
Arguably, the most controversial of the proposed amendments is the Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024. In a state where abortion is almost completely outlawed, the amendment would raise the cut-off for the procedure to the 18th week of pregnancy. Group organizer Gennie Diaz says Arkansans are going to see these canvassers at events more often as spring turns into summer.
“We have a running spreadsheet that has pretty much every medium to large size event in the state,” she said. “And what we’re doing is we are coordinating with our paid canvassers and our volunteers to get people out to all those places.”
They have over $300,000 in the bank. Diaz said about two-thirds of their canvassers are paid, and they also have a firm that verifies signatures.
But there is an organized opposition to this amendment led by a group called “Decline to Sign.” They often saddle up to their canvassing events with pictures of fetuses and try to pressure people not to sign the petition.
Diaz says Decline to Sign has First Amendment rights like everybody else.
“Whether you sign a petition or an initiated act or whatever,” she said. “You're simply saying you're putting it on the ballot for the voters to decide.”
This is an argument often repeated by canvassers. But, with a little more than a month left to collect signatures, it’s unclear just which proposals voters will see on their ballots in November.
