Language for a proposed constitutional amendment that would double the length of terms for county officeholders was approved Monday by the Arkansas attorney general's office.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also issued opinions Monday that addressed timetables for Freedom of Information Act requests and a citizen's ability to run for multiple offices at once.
David Dinwiddie of Pine Bluff asked Rutledge's office to certify the name and ballot title for a proposed amendment that, if approved by voters in 2016, would lengthen from two to four years the terms of elected county officials such as the sheriff, treasurer and coroner.
Dinwiddie, who has run for several state offices as a Libertarian, succeeded in getting similar language approved three years ago but was unsuccessful at getting the proposed constitutional change on the 2014 ballot.
Rutledge tweaked the language of Dinwiddie's proposal for "grammar" purposes and then approved the language of the measure, which if enacted by a majority vote, would apply to county officials sworn in after Dec. 31, 2016.
Monday's opinion allows supporters of the initiative to start gathering the signatures needed to get the measure before voters.
The Arkansas Constitution requires canvassers for proposed amendments to obtain valid signatures equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, according to the secretary of state's office. Dinwiddie and his supporters will need to turn in 84,859 signatures with the secretary of state's office by July 8 in order to reach the November 2016 ballot.
Contact information for Dinwiddie was not available Monday night.
Along with the language certification, Rutledge also released several opinions covering a range of issues.
Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, asked Rutledge how the state's Freedom of Information Act treats "storage" "when it comes to digital files on a computer or cell phone."
He also asked how soon voice mails would need to "be made available immediately" to a request and further asked when a document on a computer or phone falls within the scope of "reasonable access."
Rutledge wrote that most records are in "active use or storage," which gives official custodians of the records three business days to release them if requested.
But she noted that state officials "should not adopt a policy of waiting, as a matter of course, to disclose the records on the third business day," arguing that they should be released "as soon as practicable."
Rutledge wrote that there is no definition of "storage" in the state's laws and so it should be construed in a "common-sense" meaning.
The state's top attorney also wrote Monday that though state election laws prohibit candidates from running for more than one state, county or city office if those elections are held on the same date, a candidate can run for constable in addition to another state or local race.
Responding to a query from Don Farmer, the chairman of the Greene County Election Commission, Rutledge wrote that constables are township officers and are not bound by the same restrictions as candidates for state, county or municipal offices.
Metro on 12/01/2015