At a Glance: Arkansas Ballot Issues

Nick Brothers
The Free Weekly Managing Editor

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since publishing this article, the Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled out Issue 7, the Medical Cannabis Act, for a failure to obtain enough valid signatures. Votes for Issue 7 will not be count. Issue 6, the Medical Marijuana Amendment, still stands. 

Early voting started earlier this week — in case you didn’t notice from all your friends’ artsy “I voted early :)” selfie Instagram posts.

It’s been a long, hard fought campaign season that’s been embarrassing, concerning, offensive and exhausting. No matter what, life will march on after election day, Tuesday, Nov. 8. Either way, it’s going to be an immensely historical day.

There are candidates up for election for positions within our city limits all the way to our country’s highest office on the ballot this year. I encourage everyone to do their diligent research on their national and local representatives with multiple sources of information.

Arkansas has seven ballot issues to vote on this year that will effect how our government operates, and two proposals for legalizing medical marijuana. I wanted to use my column space here to break some of these down and discuss what’s going to vote.

Proposals 4 and 5, acts for limiting medical-injury lawsuit costs and authorizing three casinos respectively, were thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court earlier this month. While these may still show up on your ballot, votes on these will not be counted. So that’s that.

Word to the wise, many of these ballot initiatives are outlined in a thoroughly balanced and unbiased document from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension. The document and more information is available at uaex.edu/ballot.

Now, on to the meaty ballot issue stuff.

1. Terms, election and eligibility of elected officials

If passed, the main thing this amendment to the Arkansas Constitution would change is allowing four year terms instead of the current two-year terms for county officials. Some people think four years would allow officials to see their ideas through without worrying about campaigning for re-election every two years, others argue officials should be kept accountable every two years. If passed, it would take effect in the 2018 election.

Section two would better define in our constitution that elected senators and representatives cannot be additionally appointed to civil office, such as mayor, alderman or city attorney. Section three would allow unopposed candidates to be elected without their name appearing on the ballot. This could save costs in printing ballots, and well, unopposed candidates are pretty much re-elected no matter what anyway.

The fourth section better defines what “infamous crime” means in our state constitution in regards to what could bar a candidate from being elected to office. The amendment would specify infamous crimes as a felony offense, misdemeanor theft or abuse of office.

2. Allowing the Governor to retain power and duties when absent from the state

This is another amendment proposal designed to update the antiquity of our state constitution. As of today, whenever Gov. Asa Hutchinson leaves the state, his power as governor is passed on to our Lt. Governor, which is kinda like our state’s vice president. A vote for this would mean you’re in favor of allowing the governor to remain in power when leaving the state. The current law regarding this was drafted a century ago in 1914 when current communication technology would have been considered science fiction. A governor now can effectively make decisions through phone calls, Skype, Face Time, email, texting, etc.

If passed, the legislation will go into effect in December.

3. Job creation, job expansion and economic development

This proposal is easily the most convoluted and nuanced of all the ballot issues. It sounds great — I mean, who doesn’t want more jobs and economic development? “Jobs” is quite literally the buzzword being used here. Issue 3 has been accused of being “welfare for the wealthy,” because if it were to pass, it essentially allows tax revenue to be given to private businesses or groups, such as a local chamber of commerce.

Those for the issue say the section of the proposal that removes the state general revenue limit of 5 percent on bond issues will allow communities to bring in large development projects, as well as allowing city governments to boost economic opportunities. However, it could potentially allow politically connected business owners to essentially pay for their own risky development ventures with public funds.

Many critics raise the point about how the amendment could lead to having sales tax money from poor people pay the salaries of chamber of commerce executives who often lobby for policies contrary to the interest of poor people.

Whether or not public money should be used toward private purposes is up to you to decide.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

There are two high-profile medical marijuana initiatives going to a vote on this year’s ballot. There are some legitimate pros and cons to both, but there are some major differences between the two as well.

On the ballot will be issue 6, the Medical Marijuana Amendment, and issue 7, the Medical Cannabis Act.

The biggest difference from issue 6 to 7 is issue 6 is a constitutional amendment, not an act, and that makes it considerably more difficult to change if enacted. A 2/3 vote by the state legislature is needed to change the amendment, but can’t alter sections that legalize growing, selling, distribution and use of marijuana for medical purposes or number of dispensaries and cultivation facilities allowed. The Medical Cannabis Act, however, could be struck down by the conservative Arkansas legislature somewhat easily if enacted. In fact, 84 Arkansas lawmakers held a press conference Monday, Oct. 24, condemning issues 6 and 7.

A new marijuana commission would be made to oversee issue 6 if passed, and the dispensaries would be ran by the Alcohol Beverage Control or ABC — which licenses bars to sell alcohol. The amendment also covers 17 qualifying patient conditions, but the act covers 56. The act allows patients to grow their own marijuana plant if they have a medical card and are more than 20 miles away from a dispensary, while the amendment does not allow individual growing.

Another major difference between the two is under 6, 60 percent of the tax revenue goes to vocational schools and workforce training, 30 percent to the state, 5 percent to the Arkansas Department of Health, 4 percent to the ABC and 1 percent to the marijuana commission. Under 7, all of the tax revenue from medical marijuana is put toward patients who can’t afford it and dispensaries are by law to operate on a not-for-profit basis.

What happens if both pass? The measure with the most “for” votes will become law. However, it’s unclear whether a constitutional amendment would take precedent over an act in this situation. It will likely be up to the courts to determine which one would take effect in the event they are both passed.

Early polls have indicated there are more “for” votes for the amendment, and there are more “against” votes for the act.

Happy voting.