Attorney General Tim Griffin on Thursday rejected proposed ballot language for the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas committee's second version of a proposed constitutional amendment that would require paper ballots to be used in elections in Arkansas.
The committee's proposed constitutional amendment would require all public elections in Arkansas to be by a secure paper ballot with vote selections hand-marked by the voter, and only allow voting machines to be used by disabled voters and any voter who qualifies to use a voting machine under the federal Help America Vote Act.
Except for votes cast on absentee ballots, no votes for any election may be counted or otherwise tabulated until after the polls close on the final day of the election, and certification of all elections shall be based on a hand count of the votes performed and verified by human intelligence, under the proposed constitutional amendment.
Griffin said in a letter dated Thursday to attorney Clint Lancaster that because "you have not yet resolved these issues with the definition of 'disabled voter,' my statutory duty is to reject your proposed popular name and ballot title ... and to instruct you to 'redesign' your proposed constitutional amendment, popular name and ballot title."
Also Thursday, the Republican attorney general revised and certified proposed ballot language for the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas committee's second version of a proposed constitutional amendment to impose certain limits on absentee voting. The popular name for the proposed constitutional amendment would be The Absentee Voting Amendment of 2024.
He said the committee's proposed constitutional amendment contains several material provisions that do not appear in the committee's proposed ballot title, but would likely give voters "serious ground for reflection," so he added language to the ballot title that summarizes these provisions.
Lancaster, who submitted the proposed ballot language for the proposed constitutional amendments to the attorney general, said Thursday in a text message to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that "We view the changes as substantial and unacceptable."
A retired U.S. Army colonel, Conrad Reynolds of Conway, is the chief operating officer for the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas committee. In 2014 and 2022, he lost bids for the Republican nomination in the 2nd congressional district to U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock.
Griffin's action on the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas committee's two proposed constitutional amendments came two days after Reynolds and the nonprofit Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative that he leads filed a complaint asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to certify the sufficiency of the proposed ballot language for the two proposed constitutional amendments.
The complaint is filed against Republican Secretary of State John Thurston and the state Board of Election Commissioners, which Thurston chairs. The Restore Election Integrity Arkansas ballot committee has proposed both of the constitutional amendments.
On Nov. 29, Griffin rejected the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas' committee's first version of proposed ballot language for its proposed constitutional amendment to require elections in Arkansas to be conducted with paper ballots, and for the committee's first version of proposed ballot language for its amendment imposing certain restrictions on absentee voting.
The committee submitted its second versions of the proposed constitutional amendments to the attorney general's office Dec. 26, and submitted them to the state Board of Election Commissioners on Dec. 27, according to the complaint filed by Reynolds and the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative.
The complaint states the state Board of Election Commissioners announced Jan. 4 its refusal to certify the proposed ballot language for the proposed measures to the secretary of state, and on Monday Thurston refused to certify the proposed ballot language for the proposed measures.
Reynolds' and the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative's complaint seeks the state Supreme Court's certification of the proposed popular names and ballot titles for the two proposed constitutional amendments.
In the complaint, Reynolds and the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative ask for the state Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional a 2023 state law that requires the attorney general to consider certifying proposed ballot language for ballot measures, and a 2023 state law that requires petitions for proposed ballot measures to have signatures of registered voters in at least 50 counties rather than at least 15 counties.
Act 376 of 2019 shifted the responsibility of certifying a proposed ballot measure's popular name and ballot title from the attorney general to the state Board of Election Commissioners before Act 194 of 2023 shifted the responsibility back to the attorney general.
"This lawsuit has no merit, and I look forward to defending the law and the Secretary of State in court," Griffin said Tuesday.
Certifying the proposal's popular name and ballot title for each of its proposals would clear the way for the Restore Election Integrity Arkansas committee to begin collecting signatures of registered voters in an effort to qualify the proposed constitutional amendments for the 2024 general election ballot. Sponsors of proposed constitutional amendments are required to submit 90,704 signatures of registered voters to the secretary of state's office by July 5.
In a 4-3 ruling in December, the Arkansas Supreme Court authorized expedited consideration of the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative's appeal of a Pulaski County circuit judge's dismissal of the group's lawsuit challenging the legality of the state's ballot-counting machines.
State Supreme Court Justices Cody Hiland, Barbara Webb, Shawn Womack and Rhonda Wood opted to grant the group's motion to expedite consideration of the group's appeal of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox's ruling in September, according to court records. Justices Dan Kemp, Courtney Hudson and Karen Baker dissented.
Reynolds' group has been advocating for Arkansas counties to switch to hand-marked and hand-counted ballots.