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The authors of a pair of proposed ballot issues related to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act will have to tweak their submissions and try again after the Attorney General's Office cited in its rejections this month numerous problems with the proposals.

Members of Arkansas Citizens for Transparency submitted ballot titles for a proposed constitutional amendment and state law. Nate Bell, a member of the group, recently described the amendment as the "principles" and the act as the "policies."

Bell and representatives of other citizen-led ballot issue groups spoke about their proposals at a Dec. 15 meeting of the Arkansas Collective Impact for Direct Democracy.

Bell said the group was working on changes to the proposed constitutional amendment, which the AG rejected the wording of in a Dec. 11 opinion.

According to the opinion, The Arkansas Government Transparency Amendment didn't define for voters what was meant by "government transparency." The use of that term could also be seen as partisan. Additionally, the amendment is meant to affect the state's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but the ballot title doesn't refer to the FOIA or explain it.

The AG's Office issued its rejection of the state law's ballot title, called The Arkansas Government Transparency Act, on Dec. 18.

The latest opinion prepared by Deputy Attorney General Ryan Owsley said multiple sections of the proposed state law were unconstitutional. Other sections included vague language and "partisan coloring."

"Your popular name and ballot title uses the term “transparency.” As one of my predecessor’s concluded in Opinion No. 2012-028, and as I myself recently concluded in Opinion No. 2023-113, the use of the term “transparency” in a popular name “has an obvious positive ring to it” that seems more designed to persuade than inform. This raises a concern about partisan coloring. Nowhere in Opinion No. 2023-113 or in this opinion have I said that “government transparency” is a partisan issue. Rather, I—like my predecessor, who was of a different political party—am saying that the use of the term “transparency” is tinged with partisan coloring. I am flagging this for you now in case you would like to provide an alternative in a future submission," the opinion stated.

The Freedom of Information Act is a chapter of law establishing public records and meeting requirements. Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller signed the act into law in 1967.

Bell and a group of other FOI supporters drafted the proposed ballot titles after a recent special session of the state legislature, where records related to the governor and other state officials were exempted from the FOI.

Supporters of a constitutional amendment allowing women access to abortion services submitted a revised ballot title on Dec. 18.

Arkansans for Limited Government changed the name of their ballot issue to "The Arkansas Abortion Amendment," addressing the AG's criticism of the initial proposal's reference to "reproductive rights."

"Drafters carefully considered the issues raised in your November 28, 2023, denial of the request to certify the amendment popular name, ballot title and amendment text," Steven Nichols wrote in a cover letter submitted with the new ballot issue wording.

Arkansas legislators passed Act 180 in 2019, which bans abortion in the state except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.

The AG's Office has 10 business days to respond to the new submission. Christmas and New Year Day closures will push the response time to the first week of 2024.

Citizen groups can start collecting voter signatures only after the AG certifies the wording of their ballot titles. The deadline to submit petitions with voter signatures to qualify an issue for the ballot is July 5, 2024. Ballot issue groups must collect a certain number of voter signatures from at least 50 of the state's 75 counties.

Attorney General Tim Griffin signs every opinion, but he said he doesn't write all of them. Attorneys on staff in the Opinions Division write the opinions on behalf of the office. The name of the author appears on the last page above Griffin's signature.

"I'm the very last one to see those opinions after they have gone through the whole process," Griffin said in the video linked below.