LITTLE ROCK -- U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton touted his support for a proposed constitutional amendment placed by the Legislature on the Nov. 3 ballot that would make it more difficult for Arkansans to initiate proposals for future ballots.
The proposed amendment also would increase the vote threshold for the House and the Senate to refer constitutional changes to voters.
"It will give all Arkansans, especially those in a rural county, an equal say when it comes to amending our constitution, so it's one reason why I am urging all Arkansans to vote yes on Issue 3," Cotton told reporters before his tour of the Food Bank of Arkansas on Monday.
Asked why he's getting involved in the campaign on Issue 3, the Little Rock Republican said later in an interview, "I have long felt strongly that our initiative process creates too much confusion and last-minute uncertainty in our ballots.
"I think we would all be much better off as a state if we had a broader cross-section of all of our people in all of our counties who supported any constitutional amendment and if all those matters were resolved earlier in the year," Cotton said.
"I think the Legislature took the right step on Issue 3 and I think as a matter of good governance here in Arkansas that Issue 3 should pass," he said.
Issue 3's supporters include the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Farm Bureau and the Arkansas Republican Party.
But Kristin Foster, chairwoman of the Protect AR Rights committee that opposes Issue 3, said the "current initiative process ensures that all Arkansans, not just politicians and the lobbyists who back them, have a say over the policies put before voters.
"Issue 3 is an attempt by politicians and special interests to take power away from the people. Protect our rights, and vote no on issue 3," she said Monday in a written statement.
The Protect AR Rights committee includes representatives from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Arkansas Education Association, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Arkansas Strong, Arkansas United, Citizens First Congress, NAACP Arkansas State Conference and the League of Women Voters of Arkansas, Foster said.
In the 2019 regular session, the Republican-dominated Legislature voted to refer Issue 3 to the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The proposed amendment is in House Joint Resolution 1008, sponsored by Rep. DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio.
The proposal would require initiative or referendum petitions to have a certain percentage of valid signatures from each of 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.
The proposed amendment also would:
• Require initiative petitions for statewide measures to be filed with the secretary of state by Jan. 15 of the year they would be voted on. They are now required to be filed by four months before the election.
• Eliminate the 30-day cure period, which gives more time to gather signatures if the sponsor of a proposed ballot measure falls short on valid signatures but turns in at least 75% of the required number.
• Require a challenge to the sufficiency of a statewide petition to be filed no later than April 15 of the year of the general election in which it shall be voted on.
• Require a three-fifths vote -- up from the current majority vote -- in the 100-member House of Representatives and 35-member Senate to refer a proposed constitutional amendment to voters.
If the proposed amendment is approved by voters, it would become effective Jan. 1, 2022.
Asked whether he is afraid of giving more people access to the ballot with proposed ballot measures, Cotton said Monday, "I want more people to have more access.
"As it stands, any petitioner only needs signatures from 15 counties, which obviously means they go to the 15 largest counties," such as Benton, Craighead, Pulaski, Sebastian and Washington counties, he said.
"I would like to see more people getting signatures from Stone County or Perry County or Izard County, because when you amend our constitution, that's a serious step, and I would like it to have broad and deep support before we put that in front of the people, and I would like to see any questions, whether it's the legitimacy of the signatures or the clarity of the language, resolved well in advance of the deadline for printing ballots in September," he said.
The ballot committees backing Issue 3 include the Committee to Protect the Arkansas Constitution, chaired by Stanley Hill of the Arkansas Farm Bureau; and Arkansans for Arkansans, co-chaired by state Republican Party National Committeeman Jonelle Fulmer of Fort Smith and Washington County Judge Joseph Wood of Fayetteville.
Through the end of August, the Protect the Arkansas Constitution committee reported raising $9,000 in contributions and spending $5,000.
The Arkansans for Arkansans committee registered with the Arkansas Ethics Commission on Sept. 8.
The committees opposing Issue 3 include Protect AR Rights, chaired by Foster, and Protect AR Voices, chaired by David McAvoy II of Jonesboro.
Protect AR Rights registered with the Arkansas Ethics Commission on Sept. 25. Through the end of August, Protect AR Voices reported raising $3,767 in contributions and spending $1,906.23.
In April at the Arkansas Farm Bureau event, state Sen. Mathew Pitsch, R-Fort Smith, said Arkansas voters need to approve Issue 3 because left-leaning groups are using the process to govern the state.
"So the state Chamber [of Commerce] -- the Farm Bureau worked with us on developing this -- said, 'We have to protect the constitution,' " said Pitsch, who is the Senate sponsor of the proposed amendment.
But attorney David Couch of Little rock, who led the successful campaigns for Amendment 98 in 2016 that legalized medical marijuana and an initiated act in 2018 to raise the state's minimum wage, countered in April that the constitution has been amended 42 times since 1980 and 35 of the amendments have been referred by the General Assembly.
In that same period, there have been five acts approved that were referred by the General Assembly and eight initiated acts from the people were approved, Couch said. Initiated acts can be changed by the General Assembly with a two-thirds vote.