A federal judge in Arkansas has thrown out a handful of state laws that put extra restrictions on citizen efforts to gather signatures for ballot initiatives, agreeing with challengers that they violated the constitutional free speech rights of voters.
The decision handed several victories to the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and other plaintiffs, which amid to make it harder for regular citizens to make laws or amend their states鈥� constitution through ballot initiatives.
One such measure required someone signing a petition to show photo ID. That and other additional ballot-initiative restrictions were imposed by Arkansas鈥� GOP-controlled state government after election officials cited a legal technicality to reject petitions submitted by in a 2024 effort to legalize abortion in the conservative state.
One of the plaintiffs, Protect AR Rights, called the decision an 鈥渋mportant victory for the people of Arkansas and their constitutional right to direct democracy.”
The decision, issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks, also rejected some challenges by the league and its fellow plaintiffs, while Brooks sent three other disputes to trial.
The defendant, Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester, a Republican who had defended the laws in court, said in a statement that his office plans to appeal Brooks’ decision and 鈥渨ill fight tirelessly for common sense safeguards like voter ID.鈥�
Among the laws Brooks struck down are 2025 measures requiring canvassers to verify a petition signers’ identity through a photo ID and to read the ballot question aloud or require a petition signer to read the entire ballot question before signing it. The ballot questions are often hundreds of words long.
Requiring a petition signer to possess and present a photo ID 鈥渂efore engaging in core political speech鈥� plainly violates free speech laws, Brooks wrote, and noted that the Arkansas secretary of state’s office reviews every signature to confirm that the petition signer is a registered voter.
The ID requirement regulates what a registered voter 鈥渕ust do before signing a petition and what a canvasser must do before allowing them to,鈥� Brooks wrote. 鈥淭his impedes supporters of a measure from expressing their views by signing a petition.鈥�
State officials had contended that requiring a reading of the ballot question before anyone can sign a petition was necessary to prevent a canvasser from misrepresenting the ballot question.
But Brooks wrote that the state had refused to prosecute reported cases of such canvasser misconduct, and that it should enforce its existing laws before it chose a more restrictive alternative of 鈥渋mposing burdensome speech codes on good and bad actors alike.鈥�
Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., allow citizen-initiated ballot measures, according to the nonprofit Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.
In March, the center reported that it had found a 鈥渟harp escalation鈥� by lawmakers in both the number and severity of anti-democratic attacks on the ballot measure process over the past several election cycles.
Sponsors of such efforts, it wrote, framed them as steps to improve election integrity, administrative efficiency or voter protection.
One of the most common methods is making it harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot by placing restrictions on where, when and how signatures are collected, it wrote.
It singled out efforts in Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma.
Another common method of restricting ballot initiatives, it said, is requiring a larger majority of voters, rather than a simple majority, to approve a referendum, thus making it harder to pass. It cited efforts in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio.
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