We don't know yet which citizen-led ballot issue will be on the ballot this November, but we do know nearly $4 million has been raised to support or stop them.

Filings with the Arkansas Ethics Commission show groups supporting and opposing seven potential ballot measures also spent a combined $1.5 million by the end of April, with the majority of campaign funds going toward advertising, paid canvassing, and petition printing.

Sponsors of a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent a casino from opening in Pope County are moving fast.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma donated $1.25 million to Local Voters in Charge, a group made up of Pope County residents who opposed the casino's location when it went before voters on the ballot in 2018. The federally recognized Indian Tribe owns multiple casinos in Oklahoma, including one in Pocola near the Arkansas border.

Local Voters in Charge have already published their ballot title in a newspaper, as required by state law, and have spent more than $39,000 on background checks for paid canvassers. As of May 29, sponsors of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment are the only other citizen ballot issue group to have published their ballot title in the newspaper. Ballot issue groups have until June 5 to publish their ballot titles.

The Arkansas Racing Commission is accepting applications through June 11 for proposals to build a casino in Pope County.

Approved by voters in 2018, Amendment 100 authorized one casino in Jefferson County and one in Pope County, in addition to casinos at Oaklawn and Southland. The Pope County location has been in legal limbo ever since, with lawsuits over its approval and who could receive a permit from the state. Lawmakers passed new rules this year for issuing the license after courts voided past permits awarded to the Mississippi-based Gulfside Casino Partnership and the Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation Business.

The 2024 ballot issue would remove the Pope County casino from the state constitution and say that any future casino licenses would have to be approved by voters in a countywide election rather than a statewide election.

On May 3, a ballot issue group named Investing in Arkansas filed paperwork with the Arkansas Ethics Commission to formally oppose removing Pope County from the constitution. Paperwork is required when a group raises or spends $500. The group, which is chaired by a Cherokee Nation Business employee, has until June 15 to file its first financial paperwork showing how much it has raised or spent.

In 2022, the ballot issue group Fair Play for Arkansas raised nearly $4 million to repeal Pope County from Amendment 100. The ballot issue group, chaired by the same person as Local Voters in Charge, received $4.1 million from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The ballot issue group fell short in the number of voter signatures it had collected, when the law in Arkansas required a certain percentage of signatures from 15 counties. Legislators last year passed a law requiring ballot issue groups now collect a certain percentage of signatures from at least 50 counties.