Arkansas Public Policy Panel Executive Director Bill Kopsky discusses a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve direct democracy in Arkansas during a press conference at the state Capitol on May 19, 2025. Kopsky’s organization is a member of Protect AR Rights, the ballot question committee that submitted its proposal to the attorney general’s office on Monday. Other coalition members, including Kymara Seals (right) stand behind him. (Sonny Albarado/Arkansas Advocate)
An Arkansas ballot question committee submitted a revised version of its proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday that aims to strengthen direct democracy rights while undoing some of the legislation targeting the citizen initiative process that passed during the 2025 legislative session.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, who must certify the ballot title, rejected the first version of the proposed ballot title from Protect AR Rights, saying earlier this month that the drafters failed to meet new requirements that the title meet an eighth-grade reading level.
Griffin will have until July 1 to approve or reject the ballot title, Griffin spokesperson Jeff LeMaster wrote in a text.
Act 602 of 2025 prohibits the attorney general from certifying proposed ballot titles that do not meet an eighth-grade reading level, as determined by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula. It was one of a number of new laws that took aim at Arkansas’ citizen-led initiative and referendum process. Supporters said they were necessary to safeguard direct democracy from fraud and outside actors, but critics said that all the laws did was make citizen-led measures that much harder to get on the ballot.
Protect AR Rights also sued over the laws.
The proposed amendment, called the Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment, specifically aims to amend Article 5 Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution, which governs the state’s direct democracy process. The amendment, if ultimately passed by voters, would make it a “fundamental right” for Arkansan voters to propose laws and constitutional amendments at the state level.
It also would change the requirement that signatures be gathered from 50 of Arkansas’ counties, bringing that number down to 15.
Changes in the version submitted Tuesday largely consisted of wording and phrasing adjustments within the ballot title, as drafters attempted to further simplify the language to comply with Act 602 and suggestions made by Griffin’s office. However, the committee’s spokesperson said it wasn’t possible to both comply with Act 602 and with requirements that state a ballot title must clearly and adequately describe what a ballot measure does.
“It’s more simple than we’ve ever written a ballot measure before… We’re trying to comply with the spirit of the law in terms of being as simple and clear and straightforward as possible, using as little legalese as we can, but the reality is certain words mean certain things,” said Bill Kopsky, a spokesperson for Protect AR Rights. “This is a constitutional amendment; you can’t even use the word constitutional and meet the eighth-grade standard. You can’t use the word fundamental, et cetera, et cetera.”
However, certain language remained – such as the phrase “fundamental right” when referring to the litany of direct democracy rights the ballot measure intends to strengthen.
“It is our opinion that ‘right’ does not give the voter a fair understanding of the scope and significance of the changes to the law made by creating a ‘fundamental right’, and further simplification of that term is likely to mislead the voter,” Jen Standerfer, an attorney representing Protect AR Rights, wrote when submitting the revised amendment to Griffin’s office on Tuesday. “Further explanation would decrease readability and increase our FK score in the calculation.”
Standerfer wrote further that the ballot question committee didn’t change certain language in order to stay true to the meanings established in case law.
Protect AR Rights’ proposed amendment is one of two that have been put forward as a result of the lawmaking during the 2025 session that saw more than a dozen laws targeting the direct democracy process. The other, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Arkansas, was approved by Griffin earlier this month following multiple rejections, also due to the eighth-grade reading level requirement.
In its latest submission, Protect AR Rights also incorporated two small aspects of the League’s proposed amendment. Currently, individuals who wish to challenge the ballot title must sue within 10 days of the attorney general approving it. Protect AR Rights added language to its proposal that would change that to 10 days after the attorney general publishes the notice of the amendment proposal. It also proposes changing the current requirement that ballot petition canvassers file an affidavit, changing it to a declaration under penalty of perjury.
However, the reading level requirement remains an issue. Standerfer said in a phone call that even with the simplifications the group made, they weren’t able to get it down to the eighth-grade level.
After the ballot title was first rejected, Kopsky said that the ballot committee intended to request a meeting with Griffin’s staff to gather feedback. However, Standerfer and Kopsky told the Advocate that their requests were ultimately rejected, with Griffin staffers citing the “active litigation” filed by Protect AR Rights as the reason.
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