Arkansas 2018 ballot measures

Elections in Arkansas, 2018

• General election: Nov. 6
• Voter registration deadline: Oct. 9
• Early voting: Oct. 22 - Nov. 5
• Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 5

• Online registration: No
• Same-day registration: No
• Voter ID: Photo ID required (preliminary injunction issued on April 26, 2018)
• Poll times: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

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Three statewide ballot measures were certified for the 2018 ballot in the state of Arkansas.

The Arkansas State Legislature is allowed to refer up to three constitutional amendments to the ballot for each general election. During the 2017 legislative session, the state legislature referred two—a voter ID amendment, which was approved, and a cap on attorney's fees and lawsuit damages awards amendment, which was defeated.

HIGHLIGHTS

Two citizen-initiated measures and one legislatively referred constitutional amendment were on the November ballot in Arkansas. All three were approved. One measure required voter photo ID to vote in future elections, another authorized four casino licenses in specific counties, and another was designed to raise the state's minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2022.

Issue 1, which would have limited attorney's fees and damage awards and Issue 3, which would have imposed term limits on the state legislature, were certified for the ballot and later ruled invalid by the state Supreme Court.

On the ballot

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result
LRCA	Issue 2	Elections	Requires a voter photo identification to vote	a
CICA	Issue 4	Gambling	Authorizes four new casinos in specific counties to specific licensees	a
CISS	Issue 5	Minimum wage	Increases the state's minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2021	a

Ruled invalid by Arkansas Supreme Court

The following measures were ruled invalid by the Arkansas Supreme Court. While they appeared on the ballot, elections officials were ordered not to count any votes for the measures.

Type	Title	Subject	Description
LRCA	Issue 1	Tort Law	Limits attorney's fees and damages awarded in lawsuits and allows the legislature to amend or repeal the supreme court’s related rules
CICA	Issue 3	Term limits	Imposes six-year term limits on representatives and eight-year term limits on senators

Getting measures on the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Arkansas

Citizens of Arkansas may initiate legislation as either a state statute or a constitutional amendment. In Arkansas, citizens also have the power to repeal legislation via veto referendum. The Arkansas State Legislature may also place measures on the ballot as legislatively referred constitutional amendments or legislatively referred state statutes.

Citizens were required to file at least 67,887 valid signatures for initiated state statutes, at least 50,916 valid signatures for veto referendums, and at least 84,859 valid signatures for initiated constitutional amendments. Signatures needed to be submitted by July 6, 2018.

The signature deadline for initiatives was extended. Proponents of the initiative to authorize casinos were given until August 24, 2018, to submit the required number of valid signatures. Proponents of the minimum wage initiative were given until August 29, 2018.

Historical facts

See also: List of Arkansas ballot measures

• A total of 48 measures appeared on statewide ballots between 1995 and 2016.
• From 1995 to 2016, an average of four measures appeared on the ballot during even-numbered years in Arkansas.
• The number of measures appearing on even-year statewide ballots between 1995 and 2016 ranged from two to six.
• Between 1995 and 2016, 68.75 percent (33 of 48) of statewide ballots were approved by voters, and 31.25 percent (15 of 48) were defeated.

Summary of campaign contributions

See also: Ballot measure campaign finance, 2018

The following chart illustrates how much support and opposition committees had amassed in campaign contributions for each measure on the ballot:

Note: In some cases committees were registered to support or oppose multiple propositions. Ballotpedia lists the total sum that all committees registered to support or oppose each proposition have received in contributions. This means that the sum of all contributions in the chart below is higher than the total amount contributed.

Ballot Measure:	Support contributions:	Opposition contributions:	Outcome:
Arkansas Issue 2	$0.00	$0.00	a
Arkansas Issue 5	$1,501,310.80	$151,100.00	a

Cost per required signature

See also: Ballot measure signature costs, 2018

The cost-per-required signature (CPRS) is a comparison of the amount of money spent on the petition drive to the number of signatures the state requires for an initiative to make the ballot. The following chart illustrates the CPRS for ballot initiatives:

A total of $1.9 million was spent on successful initiative petition drives in Arkansas in 2018.

Ballot Measure:	Topic:	Petition company	Cost	Signatures	CPRS
Arkansas Issue 5	Minimum wage	National Ballot Access	$510,946.70	67,887	$7.53
Averages:	N/A	National Ballot Access	$963,714	N/A	$12.11

Arkansas initiatives removed from the ballot:

Issue 3, a citizen initiative to enact stricter term limits on state legislators, was certified for the ballot but ruled invalid by the Arkansas Supreme Court on October 19, 2018; the ruling stated that signatures initially verified by state officials should not have been counted as valid and ordered that votes for Issue 3 would not be counted despite remaining on the ballot. The signature cost information for Issue 3 is below:

• Total cost: $475,553.00
• Petition company: Arno Petition Consultants
• Signatures required: 84,859 valid signatures
• Cost per required signature (CPRS): $5.60

Arkansas Attorney General approves initiatives for circulation following supreme court ruling

See also: Arkansas Attorney General election, 2018

In Arkansas, the attorney general must certify the proposed initiative and the name and ballot title for each initiative before signature gathering can begin. The attorney general has historically had wide discretion to reject initiatives or ballot titles. For the 2018 cycle, about 83 initiatives with ballot titles were submitted to Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R), many of which were revised versions of the same proposal. Prior to a supreme court ruling on May 23, 2018, Rutledge had approved one of these for circulation: an initiative to set six-year term limits on members of the state House and eight-year term limits on state Senators. Rejected initiatives included multiple versions of a marijuana legalization initiative, gambling and casino authorization initiatives, and an initiative to remove the state's sovereign immunity.

Proponents of several initiatives filed lawsuits against Rutledge seeking an injunction to require the certification of submitted initiatives and ballot titles so they could begin signature gathering. On May 23, 2018, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled on a case brought by David Couch, the proponent of the minimum wage initiative, that Rutledge needed to either certify the minimum wage initiative for circulation or provide an alternative ballot title that would be sufficient to proceed with signature gathering.

Several hours after the supreme court's ruling concerning the minimum wage initiative, Rutledge certified four initiatives and their ballot titles for circulation: the minimum wage initiative, two different initiatives to authorize new casinos, and a Congressional and state legislative redistricting commission initiative. Also on May 23, 2018, Rutledge again rejected the marijuana legalization initiative.

Rutledge said, "To be clear, today's certifications do not prevent a citizen from legally challenging a ballot proposal once the required number of signatures are submitted to the Arkansas Secretary of State." In 2016, four citizen initiatives were certified for the ballot by state officials, but three of them were later removed from the ballot by the Arkansas Supreme Court or disqualified by the Arkansas Supreme Court such that results for the measures weren't counted.

In April 2018, the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by Driving Arkansas Forward, the proponent group for the initiative seeking authorization of four new casinos. The lawsuit also sought an injunction forcing Rutledge to clear the initiative for circulation. A prior case brought by David Couch against Rutledge over a rejected initiative was also dismissed by the state supreme court.

As the court case was ongoing, Rutledge stated that the state's initiative and referendum process should be altered to make the expectations for ballot titles and the deadlines clear to petitioners. She said, "Citizens should know very early in the process whether the Arkansas Supreme Court approves the language of their proposal, prior to their spending significant amounts of time and money collecting signatures and educating voters on the issue." She said she wanted to work with the legislature in 2019 to improve the process. Attorney General Candidate Mike Lee, who Rutledge faces in her re-election bid in November 2018, said, "As attorney general, I will institute a clear, public, and even-handed process to review initiatives and recommend revisions. But Arkansans should not have to wait. It is time for my opponent to do the work of the office to which she was elected. She should tell the public how these measures failed to meet legal standards and how they might be revised to clear the approval process, instead of exposing the state to litigation."

Rutledge was due to appear before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffin on May 18, 2018, to testify about her decision-making process regarding ballot measures after a lawsuit was filed that claims she is violating Arkansas constitutional rights that allow citizens to propose laws. Rutledge moved the case to a federal court.

Not on the ballot

See also: Proposed ballot measures that were not on a ballot

The list below contains measures that were proposed and reached a certain stage in the initiative or referral process, but did not make the ballot.

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result
LRCA	Initiative Process and Constitutional Referral Amendment	Direct Democracy	Makes changes to the initiative process and legislative referral of amendments
CICA	Congressional and State Legislative Redistricting Commission	Redistricting measures	Establishes a commission responsible for congressional and state legislative redistricting
CICA	Casinos Authorized in Benton, Boone, Miller, and Pulaski Counties Initiative	Gambling	Authorizes four new casinos in specific counties to specific licensees

State profile

Demographic data for Arkansas
	Arkansas	U.S.
Total population:	2,977,853	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	52,035	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	78%	73.6%
Black/African American:	15.5%	12.6%
Asian:	1.4%	5.1%
Native American:	0.6%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.2%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.1%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	6.9%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	84.8%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	21.1%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$41,371	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	22.9%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Arkansas. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Arkansas

Arkansas voted Republican in all six presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Arkansas, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Arkansas had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Arkansas coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Arkansas
• United States congressional delegations from Arkansas
• Public policy in Arkansas
• Endorsers in Arkansas
• Arkansas fact checks
• More...

See also

• 2018 ballot measures
• List of Arkansas ballot measures
• History of Initiative & Referendum in Arkansas
• Arkansas signature requirements
• Arkansas Attorney General election, 2018