Amendment 7 to the Arkansas Constitution provides “the people reserve unto themselves the power to propose legislative measures, laws and amendments to the Constitution, and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the General Assembly.”
This is known as direct democracy and has been in our Constitution since 1920. Direct democracy allows the people to propose laws themselves thus making laws that the politicians refuse to make. Direct democracy lessens the influence of the lobbyists and special interests by giving people the ability to have their voices heard outside of the political process. Because of this, politicians, lobbyists and special interests want to do all they can to limit its use. Issue 3 is their latest effort.
Since 1940 there have been 87 proposals appearing on the ballot due to the people’s efforts. However since 2010, the General Assembly has passed numerous laws regulating the use of direct democracy which hampers the ability of the…
