Thread by @Mr_McGarrah

Did you know you have 10 minutes to cast your ballot in Arkansas? Your time is split between selecting candidates running for various offices, reading amendments, ballot measures, and other items like referendums.

Arkansans are being denied ballot access too!

A thread... 🧵1/

In any given election year, there are typically one to six different ballot initiatives or amendments that Arkansans ready and vote on. Two to four seem to be customary. With a 10 minute time limit, that means ballot titles can't be too long.

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sos.arkansas.gov/uploads/electi…

The sticking point with getting the petition for the LEARNS referendum approved has been its title. The AG has rejected it TWICE now. What is a ballot title and what requirements does it have?

Take a look at the explanation from the Attorney General's letter to @arkcapes.

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Remember, the LEARNS Act is 145 pages. Governor Sanders has described it as the boldest, most conservative, most far reaching education reform bill in history. Reducing it to a few hundred words is nearly impossible.

Remember, you only have 10 minutes in the voter's booth.

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In the rejection letter sent to CAPES, the Attorney General's office stated the reason the title was denied for (1) missing summaries and (2) insufficient summaries. In other words, the AG said the title was not long enough.

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From the letter:

"It is the sponsor’s duty to at least try to provide a complete summary of the act to be referred... [S]ponsors must balance brevity with completeness. At this point, you are erring far too much toward brevity."

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ag-opinions.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023-0…

You can read the submitted ballot title in the image below. It is also presented in its entirety in the letter linked in the previous tweet.

This title is approximately 750 right now. The AG's office said this is "erring far too much toward brevity." By how much? 20%? 50%?

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For comparison, here is the official title for the LEARNS Act. Notice how the legislature plays by an entirely different set of rules. Notice how vague their title is. But, of course, their titles aren't required to be full summaries either. I wonder who made these rules? 🤔

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Looking back at previous ballot initiatives, it is difficult to say with certainty how many words each title should contain.

Some are short and sweet with fewer than 100 words, while others are behemoths approaching 1000 words. About 200 seems typical though.

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This brings me to reading speed though. Remember, you have up to 10 minutes in the voter's booth.

A 2019 analysis of 190 studies (with 18,573 participants) found the average reading speed is 238 words per minute, with a typical range of 175-300 wpm.

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sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

The existing ballot title for the referendum is about 750 words. Let's do some quick math to calculate the amount of time needed to just READ the title, with no consideration for processing all the details.

Slow: 4:17 minutes
Average: 3:09 minutes
Fast: 2:30 minutes

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Now, assume the title added the necessary details to satisfy the requirement to summarize LEARNS which increases the length by 50% to 1100 words. How long would it take to read now?

Slow: 6:28 minutes
Average: 4:37 minutes
Fast: 3:40 minutes

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Now, imagine there were TWO other ballot measures. Let's assume that combined they are a total of 300 words, which is pretty short. How much extra time does this add?

Slow: 1:46 minutes
Average: 1:17 minutes
Fast: 1:00 minutes

And these times don't include thinking time!

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So the AG has given us an impossible challenge:

1. The title is "too short".
2. It's not necessary to summarize 100% but won't tell us which items can be excluded and still be approved.
3. Not everyone reads at the same speed, but everyone is subject to the 10 minute rule.

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Technically, a person is not likely to be removed from a voter's booth for taking more than ten minutes to vote, but it could technically happen.

The AG's office to playing political hardball with the ballot title though. Looking at past titles shows SEVERAL short titles.

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In fact, Attorney General Tim Griffin went so far as to say if we don't want to play along with his game of back and forth, then we can sue him and take it up with the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Here's the video. Check between the 7-8 minute mark.

arkansasag.gov/news_releases/…
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Let us not forget that in the last two elections, the legislature put constitutional amendments on the ballot to make ballot access like this MUCH more difficult.

2020: ballotpedia.org/Arkansas_Issue…
2022: ballotpedia.org/Arkansas_Issue…

Neither of these amendments passed. Regnat populus!
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After realizing Arkansans didn't want to restrict ballot access, this year, the legislature skipped the amendment approach and passed it into law AGAINST the wishes of the people.

HB1419: arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocume…

This concentrates power in the government, NOT IN THE PEOPLE!

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The AG is doing political favors for political allies because they know LEARNS is unpopular. He is taking the full 10 business days between each petition. He's milking the clock.

They don't want Arkansans to vote on the issue in a citizens referendum.

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They are preventing our ability to collect signatures and to put LEARNS to a vote of the people with the referendum.

The supermajority rubberstamped everything the governor wanted and ignored the concerns of Arkansans at every turn.

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This isn't a right/left or Republican/Democrat issue. This is an issue of giving Arkansans a voice through direct democracy. It's our right but our rights are being infringed.

We want LEARNS to be put to a vote of the people. If LEARNS is as popular s they claim, then...

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Why are they afraid of a little citizen's referendum vote? Why are so many teachers against LEARNS and pay raises if it is good for schools, students, and teachers?

It's NOT GOOD or POPULAR!

It is our right to rule. The people rule!

Regnat populus!

#SayNoToLEARNS

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To get involved or donate, visit saynotolearns.org.

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