Bills to change Arkansas’ citizen-led petition process continue to move through Legislature

by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
February 24, 2025

Proposed changes to Arkansas’ citizen-led ballot initiative process continued to advance through the state Legislature on Monday, with more movement expected throughout the week.

Two bills sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, passed a House committee for the second time after being amended and will go to the House floor next. A third bill passed the House and will return to a Senate committee for concurrence on an amendment.

The bills are among several Hammer is sponsoring that members of the public have said will impede Arkansans’ ability to participate in direct democracy. Hammer, House sponsor Rep. Kendon Underwood and Secretary of State Cole Jester have all claimed petitions for ballot measures circulated last year contained many duplicate signatures, which is prohibited by state law.

Underwood, a Cave Springs Republican, presented Senate Bill 207 to the House and later presented Senate Bill 208 and Senate Bill 211 to the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.

SB 207 would require canvassers for ballot-measure petitions to inform potential signers that petition fraud is a criminal offense. The section of Arkansas code governing initiatives and referenda designates petition fraud a Class A misdemeanor.

“I think many people just don’t know that these are serious government documents, and this corrects that error,” Underwood told the House. “…[This bill would] protect the democratic process by helping to ensure that legitimate signatures are collected and reducing fraudulent activity that undermines the public trust.”

Rep. Tippi McCullough, D-Little Rock, asked Underwood how the state would collect evidence to prosecute canvassers for failure to comply with the requirement in the bill. Underwood said evidence “could be provided in a number of ways.”

McCullough said she thought the requirement could “chill this process” of collecting signatures, echoing concerns expressed in recent weeks by opponents of the bill and by other Democratic lawmakers.

“If you’re putting someone in the position of doing a video recording [to prove compliance], it’s kind of interrupting the process between the canvasser and the voter,” McCullough said.

She and 16 other House Democrats, plus nine Republicans, voted against SB 207. Three of the Republicans who voted against it — Julie Mayberry of Hensley, Mark McElroy of Tillar and Jeremy Wooldridge of Marmaduke — also voted against it in committee last week.

Five Republicans did not vote, and the remaining two Democrats, Glenn Barnes and Ken Ferguson of Pine Bluff, voted present.

SB 207 has an emergency clause, which would allow it to go into effect immediately upon the governor’s signature. Emergency clauses need a two-thirds vote in each chamber, and the 67 Republicans who voted for SB 207 gave the emergency clause the bare minimum of support it needed for passage.

More ballot-measure bills

SB 208 and SB 211 also have emergency clauses. All three bills initially passed the Senate at or beyond the two-thirds threshold of 24 votes.

SB 208 would require canvassers to request a photo ID from potential signers, and SB 211 would require canvassers to file a “true affidavit” with the secretary of state certifying they complied with the Arkansas Constitution and state laws related to canvassing, perjury, forgery and fraudulent practices in the procurement of petition signatures. Signatures submitted without the affidavit would not be counted.

The House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs approved both bills as amended Monday, a week after hearing nearly six hours of public comment before passing the bills.

Kwami Abdul-Bey, representing the Arkansas state conference of the NAACP, spoke against the bills both Monday and last week. He said he appreciated the amendment to SB 208, which clarifies the type of photo ID the bill would require under existing state law, since he had expressed concerns about this technicality at the Feb. 17 meeting.

Abdul-Bey said he remained concerned about SB 208 because it did not include exceptions for voters who live in long-term care facilities or are in the military, since state law exempts them from presenting a photo ID to vote.

He also said he opposed SB 211’s requirement for a “true affidavit” because the term carries criminal liability.

State law already requires ballot question committees to submit an affidavit identifying paid canvassers by name and provide proof that the committee explained to canvassers the state’s laws for soliciting signatures and gave them the Secretary of State’s initiatives and referenda handbook before they started canvassing.

This affidavit is not a “true affidavit” and therefore only carries civil liability, Abdul-Bey said. He also questioned why the proposed requirement in the bill could not be incorporated into the existing affidavit requirement.

“Not only are we creating an extra piece of paper, but we are also criminalizing the act of collecting signatures for a ballot measure,” said Abdul-Bey, who works for the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and has participated in multiple citizen-led ballot efforts in the past few years.

No other members of the public spoke for or against the bills, and the committee approved both bills with split voice votes after no discussion.

SB 208 and SB 211 will go to the House floor for a vote and back to the Senate if approved.

The Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs is expected to take up SB 207 as soon as Thursday.

Hammer is sponsoring two more bills, SB 209 and SB 210, which he asked the Senate to place on Tuesday’s calendar.

Senate Bill 209 would disqualify signatures collected by canvassers if the secretary of state finds “by a preponderance of evidence” that they violated state law collecting the signatures.

Senate Bill 210 would require potential signers to read the ballot title of a petition or have it read aloud to them in the presence of a canvasser. It would also make it a misdemeanor for a canvasser to accept a signature from people who have not read the ballot title or had it read aloud to them in the presence of a canvasser. 

Both bills passed the Senate on Feb. 12, but they failed to receive the two-thirds majority vote required to pass the bills’ emergency clause. The Senate approved Hammer’s motion to expunge the vote, and the bills again failed to gain enough support for the emergency clauses on Feb. 13.

Hammer said Monday that Tuesday will be the last time he brings the bills to the chamber for consideration.

“Members, I promise you no matter who’s in the room or who’s not in the room, we’ll vote it and see what happens and we’ll be done with it tomorrow,” Hammer said.

Deputy Editor Antoinette Grajeda contributed to this article.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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Federal actions threaten Arkansans’ employment, more job cuts expected

by Antoinette Grajeda, Arkansas Advocate
February 24, 2025

Some Arkansans working for the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs were fired as a result of efforts to shrink the federal workforce, and a Saturday email sparked concern that more cuts are on the way. Meanwhile, jobs are at risk as other organizations cope with funding freezes.

Stacy Ramsey was “caught completely off guard” when she was one of four Buffalo National River employees terminated on Valentine’s Day. Ramsey had worked for the park service for five years, first in part-time positions before becoming a full-time river ranger last March. 

Ramsey was swept up in the layoffs as a probationary worker — new hires or long-time workers who’ve started a new role that subjects them to a probationary status of one to two years. 

“Thousands of federal workers have lost their positions, many of them in much more critical, more important roles than I was in, and the problem with all of those indiscriminate cuts was that the positions weren’t reviewed to see how critical they were,” Ramsey said. 

Of the federal government’s 2.4 million-person workforce, roughly 220,000 are probationary employees. About 80% are employed outside the District of Columbia, including about 13,000 who worked in Arkansas in 2023, according to Partnership for Public Service.

Prior to probationary worker firings, federal employees received an email offering a deferred resignation that would allow them to be paid through September if they quit working now. While some co-workers close to retirement took the offer, Ramsey said she didn’t because she didn’t think her “dream job” was at risk. 

Her termination was “very sudden, very swift,” and Ramsey said her supervisors “were all just as shocked and upset” when she arrived at headquarters in Harrison to sign paperwork the day she was fired.

“I just kept telling myself, ‘be stoic, don’t cry, it’s going to be okay,’ but when I walked in, I could feel so much sadness from them that I was a little overcome,” she said. 

Recreation fees technician Leah Saffian was prepping a campsite for spring visitors when she was notified of her firing. Saffian was a new hire with just a few weeks under her belt. 

The termination was so chaotic that when Saffian arrived at headquarters to turn in her things, she was already locked out of her account. Staff couldn’t access her termination paperwork, so Saffian said she had to return a few days later to complete the process. 

“It was such a mess. It just wasn’t handled professionally in my opinion, not by the park service but by whoever is making these decisions,” she said. “…I was in shock, but mostly I was really, really angry, and I still am just because there’s absolutely zero consideration for everything I did to make myself available for this job.”

Saffian was working several part-time jobs in Northwest Arkansas when she applied to work at the Buffalo National River in September. After hearing nothing for months, she received an interview in December and an official offer for her “ideal job” on Jan. 17, three days before the presidential inauguration. 

Because of a lack of housing in the area, Saffian said she spent much of her savings to buy a camper, rent a campsite and move herself and her rescue dog to Newton County. She also bought camper accessories and items to complete her uniform before starting her job on Jan. 27th, only to be fired three weeks later. 

Saffian’s whirlwind experience has left her with much uncertainty about where to live and whether she’ll be able to find work nearby. As of Thursday, she’d yet to receive an answer about whether she qualifies for unemployment benefits because her employment was so brief.

Health care resources limited for income-constrained, working Arkansans, especially in rural areas

“The emotions surrounding this are very complex because I have no direct contact with the people who are making these decisions,” Saffian said. “So I have all this frustration, but I can’t even address it to the people that make these decisions, and I’m just in a really difficult position.”

Ramsey also is unsure what comes next. Ramsey grew up and still lives in Searcy County, one of Arkansas’ poorest counties where she said jobs are limited and people are forced to drive an hour away for work. 

“It’s so hard to find work with pay that is enough to cover a mortgage and utilities and have health insurance benefits,” she said. “…I’m just hoping to find a good job soon.” 

Emails and voicemails sent last week to National Park Service sites in Arkansas and the federal office were not returned by Monday. 

Veterans affairs 

Following the initial round of layoffs, federal workers began sharing their stories on LinkedIn and Facebook, but official tallies have been difficult to come by.

Spokespeople at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks emailed the Advocate similar statements late last week confirming they had “dismissed a small number of probationary staff,” but couldn’t discuss specific personnel matters due to privacy concerns. 

“This decision will have no negative effect on Veteran health care, benefits or other services and will allow VA to focus more effectively on its core mission of serving Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” VHSO spokesperson Scott Whittington said. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs has more than 43,000 probationary employees and approximately 1,000 were dismissed, a move expected to save the department more than $98 million per year, according to a press release. 

Whittington noted that the VA worked with the White House and the Office of Personnel Management to identify more than 130 occupations within the agency that would not be eligible for the deferred resignation program so the VA can continue providing “mission-critical” services. 

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2201 is the union for VHSO, which has a main campus in Fayetteville and satellite campuses in western Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and southwest Missouri. 

Union President Bruce Appel said it’s been difficult to get a straight answer about how many workers have been let go, in part because VA leaders are “being blindsided” like everyone else. Appel said he was told about a dozen local people opted for the original deferred resignation option. 

While nonunion members were affected by the Feb. 14 layoffs, Appel said he learned late Thursday that probationary workers within his union were at risk of another round of cuts. VHSO has about 2,300 workers in the entire system, and Appel estimated 200-300 of his members could be at risk.

Federal employees received an email Saturday requesting they reply by midnight Monday with five bullet points of what they accomplished last week. Presidential adviser Elon Musk, a billionaire who’s been leading the federal employee cuts, posted on X, a social media site he owns, that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

U.S. senators criticize staffing cuts in health care program for Sept. 11 responders

The email created further confusion among federal workers and agency supervisors over the weekend with some agency heads telling employees not to respond just yet, according to the New York Times. 

If the presidential administration ignores workers’ contract rights, Appel said it would “put us in a position of having to litigate it,” which he noted AFGE did during the president’s first term. 

The VA last year announced a settlement with the union resolving litigation over “adverse reactions taken against former VA employees” under the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017. The settlement addressed a finding by the Federal Labor Relations Authority that the VA failed to bargain with AFGE regarding the impact and implementation of the law, according to a press release.  

Appel said VHSO provides a high standard of care, but he’s concerned continued layoffs will have a negative effect on services. 

“My federal employees are being demonized like we’re some kind of parasite, and that’s not the case,” Appel said. “We are not the public’s enemy during this, and with the destruction that’s going on right now, the layoffs, the changes in working conditions, everything else, their family members are not going to get the care that they’ve come to expect when they come to this facility.”

Funding freezes

An inauguration day executive order that suspended the country’s refugee resettlement program directly affected Canopy Northwest Arkansas, one of two resettlement agencies in Arkansas. The nonprofit was also hit by a “stop-work order” that halted funding for basic services provided to refugees who arrived within the last 90 days, Executive Director Joanna Krause said.

Arkansas faith groups worried about federal policies hindering immigrant, refugee ministries

Typically, refugee resettlement agencies provide services that are then reimbursed, but as of last week, Krause said Canopy NWA was still waiting on $584,000 to be reimbursed. Housing is one of the largest costs for refugee agencies because you have to pay a deposit, plus first and last month’s rent, Krause said. That can be particularly expensive in Northwest Arkansas where housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years as the region’s population has exploded.

The nonprofit organization has been able to continue operations due to community support, but Krause said she’s “very, very worried” about having to lay off members of Canopy NWA’s roughly 40-person staff. 

“We are taking it day by day,” she said. “Again, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the support that’s come through with our community, and we absolutely remain committed to our mission.” 

Krause said they’ve not received any updates about whether or when the federal refugee resettlement program will resume, and the waiting “is really hard.”

Refugee status is a legal immigration status that may be granted to people who may have been persecuted or fear they will be due to race, religion, nationality or membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

Since the Refugee Act in 1980, the U.S. has admitted more than 3.2 million refugees, according to the U.S. State Department. Of the roughly 100,000 refugees who came to the U.S. in fiscal year 2024, nearly 350 resettled in Arkansas, according to the Refugee Processing Center.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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SUMMARY: Happy Saturday morning! Meteorologist Drake Foley reports cooler temperatures with some refreezing on roads this morning, but conditions are improving as temperatures rise into the 40s and melting occurs. Northwest Arkansas still has some snow, but it will dissipate with the sunny weather over the next few days. Sunday will see temperatures drop into the 20s overnight, but warm to the high 50s and low 60s. The coming days promise more sunshine and temperatures could reach the 70s by Tuesday, with minimal chance of refreezing. A weak cold front may bring isolated showers midweek. Enjoy the beautiful forecast!

40/29 Meteorologist Drake Foley says this weekend will be wonderful and the start of a warming pattern that continues into the end of the month.

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