Arkansans rejected Tuesday a proposed constitutional amendment that would have made it more difficult for citizen groups to qualify ballot measures for general election ballots and increased the voting threshold for the state Legislature to refer proposed constitutional amendments to voters.
Issue 3 would have required initiative or referendum petitions to have a certain percentage of valid signatures of registered voters from 45 counties. The designated percentage would be based on the votes in each county in the most recent gubernatorial election.
The Constitution now sets that minimum at 15 of Arkansas’ 75 counties.
Issue 3 also would have eliminated the 30-day cure period, which gives proposal backers more time to gather signatures if the submitted petitions fall short on valid signatures, but contain at least 75% of the required number.
Issue 3 would require a three-fifths vote of legislators — up from the current simple majority vote — to put proposals on the ballot. That would be at least 60 votes in the 100-member House of Representatives and at least 21 in the 35-member Senate. Such proposals are in the form of resolutions, which require approval of both chambers but no action by the governor.
At 11 p.m. Tuesday with 89.79% of precincts reporting, unofficial returns were:
Against 604,497
For 475,090
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.