Indivisible Arkansas garners 1,800 signatures on ballot initiatives for November election

Voters sign a petition to place an education amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot at a signing event April 8, 2024, outside Little Rock's Whitewater Tavern. Other groups sponsoring ballot initiative petition drives were also there. (Paige Eichkorn for Arkansas Advocate)

The Little Rock chapter of activist group Indivisible helped gather more than 1,800 signatures for five Arkansas voter initiatives last month and plans another signing event this weekend. 

The ballot initiatives include proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution on abortion, education, the public’s right to information and expanded access to medical marijuana. Two other citizen-initiated proposals would amend the state’s Freedom of Information Act and eliminate the sales tax on feminine hygiene products.

Constitutional amendments need a total of 90,704 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Initiated acts require 72,563 signatures and must be collected from at least 50 of the 75 Arkansas counties according to Act 236. The groups sponsoring the ballot initiatives have until July 5 to collect the requisite signatures. If the measures meet the requirements, they will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Indivisible Little Rock and Central Arkansas board member Alison Guthrie said each proposed measure is about providing access to things people need.

“Whether that’s education or sterile products or essential healthcare, to being able to find out what our government officials and entities are doing,” she said. “These are about access for the public and for people who need it the most.”

Representatives of the sponsoring groups said they are relying mostly on volunteers to help gather signatures. 

Although the different organizations wouldn’t normally directly work together, Guthrie said Indivisible has provided a space for them to do so at recent downtown Little Rock events.

“I think the biggest thing we do is we try to give people action items,” Guthrie said. “How can you be resisting what’s happening? …How can you get involved and make a difference?”

The organization will be helping collect more signatures on May 4 at the 501 Fest in the South Main District.

Abortion amendment

Supporters of Arkansans for Limited Government’s Arkansas Abortion Amendment hope its passage will lift the full ban imposed by state law and untie doctors’ hands so they can provide routine procedures, said For AR People Executive Director Gennie Diaz. 

The amendment would provide access to abortions up to 18 weeks of pregnancy. It would also provide exceptions to the state’s strict abortion ban in instances of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly and protect the health and life of the pregnant person.

“Most people agree that our current law goes too far,” Diaz said. “So regardless, of whether or not somebody identifies a particular way, ideologically, the majority of Arkansas voters [say] …  it should be allowed in some circumstances, and so we have experienced a lot of positive feedback.”

Education amendment

April Reisma, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said the For AR Kids Educational Rights Amendment has more than 800 volunteers gathering signatures throughout the state.

The amendment would create free access to pre-K, afterschool and summer programs; education support for children in poverty; and quality special education.

“Currently, these are the number one things that can help a student and we don’t have those enshrined in the Constitution,” Reisma said. “It’s time for us to be able to provide our students with the things that they need to be able to grow and thrive.”

The proposed amendment would also establish minimum academic standards for Arkansas schools and require all schools accepting state taxpayer funds to follow the same rules.

The proposal arose in direct response to the LEARNS Act of 2023, the governor’s sweeping education legislation, and its creation of a school voucher program that allows parents to pay for private school tuition.

Reisma said she has seen special education children leave her school to take advantage of a voucher for a private school and then have to return to public school because teachers were not adhering to the students’ Individual Education Plans — legally required documents that define how a school plans to meet a child’s educational needs that result from a covered disability.

“Tax money had followed that child to that school, and we don’t recoup those losses,” she explained. “And that’s the biggest problem with having private entities that don’t have to follow the same rules.”

Several organizations promoting ballot initiatives gather signatures on April 6, 2024, near the White Water Tavern in Little Rock. (Paige Eichkorn for Arkansas Advocate)

Feminine hygiene, diapers

The Arkansas Period Project’s proposed initiated act would eliminate the sales tax on menstrual products and all diapers, including those used for adults.

Voters see the Act to Remove the Sales & Use Tax for Menstrual Products and Diapers as a family issue, Shannie Jackson, the group’s chair, said. The group believes period products should be available for free as a medical necessity.

“The first step to hopefully making them free one day is getting rid of the tax on it, and making people aware that they are taxed as a luxury, the same as dog food or liquor,” Jackson added.

Freedom of Information

Arkansas Citizens for Transparency developed a proposed constitutional amendment and an initiated act. Both deal with citizens’ right to public information and knowing what government is doing.

Arkansas Press Association executive director Ashley Wimberley said the Arkansas Government Disclosure Amendment would establish a constitutional right of Arkansans to government transparency and define “government transparency” as the government’s obligation to share information with citizens. 

It would also restrict the circumstances under which the General Assembly may make a law concerning government transparency and confirm that the state may be sued for failure to comply with such laws.

The Government Disclosure Act would be the “nuts and bolts” to protect the right the amendment re-establishes, Wimberley said. It would expand the definition of a “public meeting,” establish conditions for disclosure of a public record and strengthen disclosure policies for records related to security of government officials. 

It would also establish the Arkansas Government Transparency Commission to ensure transparency and require all public meetings to allow public participation.

“Government transparency is important to citizens, and that’s exactly what we’re hearing in all of our grassroots efforts is that they want to know how their taxpayer money is spent and want to keep that right protected,” Wimberley said.

Cannabis amendment

Bill Paschall, executive director of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association, said Arkansans for Patient Access had a huge weekend of signatures for its Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment on the 4/20 holiday. 

“We feel comfortable that we’re on course and on pace to meet the required 90,700 signatures,” Paschall said.

The measure would expand who can prescribe medical marijuana and allow patients and caregivers the ability to grow their own plants. It also would allow prescriptions to be based on medical need rather than the current “qualifying conditions.” 

Paschall said the major focus is to “knock down barriers” for patients to get a medical marijuana card.

“There are a lot of folks that live in Arkansas that can’t find a doctor,” he said. “So we think expanding who may certify a patient is going to be great for folks to help find a doctor … I think it’s going to be a game changer.”

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