Beware of those carrying petitions near the polls next week.
Primary elections are prime time for gathering signatures to advance a citizen initiative. Petitioners need signatures from qualified electors and the most obvious place to find large numbers of them is at the polls on Election Day.
This year may be particularly busy, given that petitions for at least 11 different initiatives have been circulating in the state.
Volunteers and paid canvassers could be at any of the polling places, although at legally specified distances the entrances, as they try to persuade those going in and out to sign a petition for any number of potential ballot issues.
Expect them to thrust clipboards and pens in your hands, usually while offering a brief spiel about the issue they are promoting.
They're all working toward a July 3 deadline to file statewide initiative proposals with the secretary of state's office to get them on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
It's all part of the initiative process, which requires the collection of tens of thousands of valid signatures from Arkansas voters to move an issue to the ballot.
An initiated act requires 71,321 valid signatures this year; a proposed constitutional amendment needs 89,151. Those numbers are derived from a percentage of the votes cast for governor in the last general election (8 percent for an initiated act; 10 percent for a constitutional amendment).
The signatures can't all come from one place, such as Little Rock, the capital city. State law requires sufficient signatures come from at least 15 different counties.
That latter requirement explains why petitioners will be dispersed around the state on Tuesday. Larger precincts in larger counties are particularly common targets for signature gatherers. The more people they can engage, the more signatures they may gather.
While some of the proposals may be worth considering, all are not. That's the reason for this caution.
Read the proposal, not just the petition. Know what you're endorsing, if you sign.
Some voters will sign anything to get a pesky canvasser to leave them alone. But enough people signing just anything might lead ultimately to that proposal's adoption in November.
That's how this state got a flawed casino gambling amendment two years ago. Voters clearly wanted to allow casino gambling but didn't pay attention to the details they were writing into the state's constitution.
It is also how Arkansas approved a medical marijuana amendment four years ago that still hasn't been fully implemented across the state.
Initiatives have also fueled the decades-long argument over term limits for Arkansas legislators.
This year, in fact, there could be two more term limit amendments on the November ballot. The Legislature has referred one, but another is being circulated as an initiative.
This year's list of potential initiatives also includes several related to marijuana, ranging from authorization for recreational use of marijuana to potential relief for those convicted of marijuana crimes.
Courts would be authorized to reduce sentences or expunge such convictions and restore voting rights to the offender. A different proposed amendment would authorize restoration of voting for certain other felons as well.
There are also proposals to allow coin-operated amusement machines; to allow recall of state officials, legislators and members of the state judiciary; and to alter the state's tax system.
There are more proposals, but you get the idea. The proposals are quite varied and detailed and will require some study to understand.
Arkansas is one of just 15 states where citizens have reserved the right to themselves to propose an amendment to the state constitution or a state law to voters.
With that right comes the responsibility for voters to look past the simplified ballot title to know just how any given proposal would change the constitution or the law.
Primary voters have enough to consider on Tuesday without scouring the details of proposed petitions outside the voting sites.
Arkansas voters will weigh in Tuesday on party nominations for president, for the state's congressional and legislative districts and county offices as well as in nonpartisan judicial elections at the state and district levels and school elections at the local level.
That's enough. If you're interested in one or more of the petitions, ask the canvasser how to get more details and where to find a petition later.
Commentary on 02/26/2020