Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is a member of Protect AR Rights, a committee working to get The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment on the 2026 ballot.

Did you know that for decades, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families has been advocating for and against ballot measures? In 2008, we worked with a coalition of partners to oppose a citizen-initiated act the “Arkansas Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban” that sought to block LGBTQIA+ couples from adopting children at a time when same-sex marriage was still illegal and children in foster care were in desperate need of loving families, just as they are today. Unfortunately, the measure passed, but was later struck down in the Arkansas Supreme Court with a unanimous decision.

A decade later in 2018, we served as a member of Arkansans for a Fair Wage, which, with Issue 5, successfully sought to increase the state minimum wage from $8.50/hour to $9.25/hour, a major step forward in getting the minimum wage towards a livable wage. Arkansas Advocates has supported and opposed several other measures during the last 25 years including measures involving redistricting, additional minimum wage increases, and the state lottery. But over the last five years, our focus on ballot measures has been on preserving direct democracy in the state.

Look at the history of Arkansas Advocates advocacy on ballot measures, and you will see we have won some and lost some of the measures on which we took positions, both legislatively referred measures and citizen-led initiatives. But we never thought, because of our losses, that we should try to get our way by eliminating Arkansans’ right to direct democracy. The sanctity of our democratic institutions and processes are critical to the fundamental well-being of the children in our state. But other powerful interests, like those who opposed the minimum wage increases and a measure to improve women’s access to health care, have taken a different approach.

Primarily, since 2018, some state legislators have pushed a series of restrictive laws and constitutional amendments to make it harder for Arkansans to practice their over 100-year-old right to vote on and propose measures at the ballot box. In 2020 and 2022, we opposed efforts by the state legislature to get constitutional amendments passed on the ballot to make it harder to collect signatures and pass measures (both attempts failed). This year opponents of direct democracy took a different approach. Because voters have repeatedly rejected their attempts to restrict ballot measure rights, they successfully lobbied for the passage of a series of harmful laws at the state legislature that will make the signature collection process much harder, and unpleasant, for both potential signers and canvassers.

Arkansas Advocates spoke against many of the harmful bills, now laws, when they were proposed at the General Assembly, arguing that people should have the right to vote on measures that impact their communities. But because many of those bills are now laws, we felt compelled to take further action.

With a group of partners including Arkansas Appleseed, Arkansas Education Association, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, Citizens First Congress, and For AR People, we (re)formed Protect AR Rights to stand up for direct democracy in our state. Together, we are proposing the Arkansas Ballot Measure Amendment, which aims to roll back harmful laws that have recently passed, and to clearly establish that Arkansans’ constitutional rights to propose ballot measures, collect signatures for ballot measure petitions, and to sign petitions are fundamental rights. Legally, fundamental rights are much harder for the government to usurp and restrict, which is why we think it is so important to establish ballot rights as a fundamental right in our state constitution.

In the months to come, we will be asking for your signature on our petition to get our proposed amendment on the ballot, and we hope that you will consider signing. In the meantime, if you would like to get involved with our campaign, you can sign up here. Protect AR Rights is also working through the federal court system to halt some of the most egregious laws restricting ballot rights. You can read about the lawsuit here.

Arkansas Advocates, regardless of our position on any one ballot measure, believes that direct democracy is a vital right that allows Arkansas families to ensure that the will of the people is not ignored by the General Assembly. A right that we must maintain.