What’s on the ballot?

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor Y es, most folks heading to the polls as early as next week (early and absentee voting begins Monday, Oct. 14) will probably be focused mainly on the U.S. presidential elections and a handful of other down-ballot races.

But, also up for a vote are three ballot measures that could have a long-lasting impact on our state for years to come and it’s important for voters to know what those issues are before heading to the polls.

A funny thing about these ballot measures is that they are sometimes very wordy and contain complicated language, or “legalese” as it is sometimes called. There are those who say that it’s done to ensure that the wording follows the letter of Arkansas code and constitutional law, but I’m pretty sure it’s mostly done so that “they” can sneak in a bunch of stuff that we’re not really aware of what we’re voting for.

You see this kind of stuff in politics all the time. Like, Congress will pass a bill aimed at lowering the interest rate on student loans or something but in Section 3, Subsection 8, Part C there’s $40 million to support Ukraine or whatever.

So, I’m always a little leery about these ballot measures. Well, this time around, there are three issues for Arkansas voters to decide. Notably not on the ballot is an issue on abortion rights. The hardline GOP leadership fought tooth and nail to keep that one off the ballot and ultimately succeeded. I’m no fan of abortion, but if these lawmakers are so sure that most Arkansans don’t want some kind of abortion rights, why make sure it doesn’t come up for a vote?

Anyway, looking at them in numerical order, Ballot Issue No. 1 is “A Constitutional Amendment to Provide that Lottery Proceeds May Be Used to Fund or Provide Scholarships and Grants to Arkansas Citizens Enrolled in Vocational-Technical Schools and Technical Institutes.”

This one is pretty straightforward. Currently, the Arkansas Lottery Scholarship is only available to college students. This expands that to vo-tech and trade school students. Seems fair to me. Not everyone wants or needs a college degree but may want to enroll in a program such as those outlined here. Since many Arkansas colleges are now offering free tuition to lower-income students, this seems like a natural and logical progression of the lottery scholarship. And I don’t see anything tucked into the language of the proposal that’s hiding there to surprise or trick voters, so it’s a pretty clear-cut “yay” or “nay” thing.

Ballot Issue No. 2, however, is a mess. It is titled, “An amendment requiring local voter approval in a countywide special election for certain new casino licenses and repealing authority to issue a casino license in Pope County, Arkansas.”

And really, lawmakers only have themselves to blame. In an effort to cash in on that sweet, sweet casino money that is currently being raked in at Southland here in West Memphis and Oaklawn over in Hot Springs, they pushed a ballot measure a few years ago through to expand the number of casinos in Arkansas, one of which was slated for Pope County.

Well, it turns out that maybe the folks over in Pope County didn’t want a casino – at least a very vocal number of them. And that has been a legal circus that has gone on and on. Arkansas lawmakers are pretty good at putting up legislation that only affects a small part of the state but gets voted on by the entirety of the Arkansas voting population.

If you’re thinking that sounds unfair, well here’s your chance to rectify that. Now that the measure is already in the constitution, you’re voting on whether or not the folks in Polk County can then vote on whether or not to have a casino. So strange and unnecessary.

And finally, we get to the most contentious of this year’s ballot measured. Issue No. 3 is titled, “The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2024.” And there’s actually still a chance that it won’t matter how you vote on this as the Attorney General is still trying to get it disqualified.

But if it stays, and if it passes, it would basically be an expansion of who can qualify for legal marijuana in the state. It’s pretty much the last step before Arkansas simply has legal marijuana. It’s super-wordy and I won’t pretend to know what all the legal jargon means but if you’re an advocate for marijuana usage you’re probably for it, and if you’re not, you’re probably against it.

I don’t really care one way or another, but I do know that I am tired of smelling it everywhere I go, and there’s no ballot measure that can fix that …