A proposed constitutional amendment intended to safeguard direct democracy in Arkansas was rejected for a second time on Tuesday by Attorney General Tim Griffin.
The reason: it didn’t comply with a new law requiring ballot titles to be written at or below an eighth-grade reading level.
Passed by lawmakers in April, Act 602 bars the attorney general from certifying any ballot title that exceeds an eighth-grade reading level, as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula.
This formula evaluates sentence length and word complexity to determine readability.
In the latest opinion—authored by Assistant Attorney General Kelly Summerside and approved by Attorney General Tim Griffin—the ballot title submitted by the Protect AR Rights coalition scored a 9.3 reading level.
While this was an improvement from the original 11.5 score, Griffin said it still failed to meet the legal threshold.
The proposed Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment seeks to revise Article 5, Section 1 of the state constitution, which governs the initiative and referendum process.
It would establish the right of citizens to propose and repeal laws via petition as a “fundamental right.”
“We are reviewing the Attorney General’s feedback, and our drafting team will revise and resubmit the measure without delay,” said Protect AR Rights coalition member Gennie Diaz.
“As we’ve previously stated, we believe the 8th grade readability requirement conflicts with our legal obligation to provide voters a clear and accurate ballot title — a concern we are addressing through ongoing litigation.”
