Ark. Code Ann. » Title 7 Chapter 05
Arkansas Code Annotated

Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-204 (2026)

Certification of measures and questions submitted to voters

✓ current as of May 2026
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  1. Whenever a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution or other measure or question is to be submitted to a vote of the people, the Secretary of State shall not certify the amendment, measure, or question to the county board of election commissioners of each county in the state less than seventy-five (75) days before each general election day.
  2. The county board of election commissioners shall include the amendment, measure, or question in the posting that it is required to make under § 7-5-206.
    1. If the Secretary of State has not determined the sufficiency of a petition for an amendment or a measure by the seventy-fifth day before the general election or if an amendment or a measure has been challenged for any reason in a court of competent jurisdiction, the Secretary of State shall nonetheless transmit the amendment or measure and the ballot title of each amendment and measure to the county election commissions to make any required posting and to place the amendment or measure on the ballot.
    2. If the petition for the amendment or measure is subsequently declared insufficient by the Secretary of State or a court of competent jurisdiction or if held to be invalid for any other reason, no votes regarding the amendment or measure shall be counted or certified.

History. Acts 1969, No. 465, Art. 6, § 7; A.S.A. 1947, § 3-607; Acts 1997, No. 451, § 9; 1999, No. 1490, § 5; 2007, No. 222, § 5; 2007, No. 1049, § 19; 2009, No. 959, § 4; 2011, No. 1185, § 4.

Amendments. The 2007 amendment by No. 222 inserted “measures and” in the section heading; inserted “measure or,” substituted “sixty (60)” for “fifty (50),” ”measure, or” for “in,” “measure, or question” for “in question,” and deleted the last sentence.

The 2007 amendment by No. 1049 subdivided the text into (a) and (b); in present (a), inserted “measure or” in two places, and substituted “seventy (70)” for “fifty (50)”; deleted the former last sentence in present (b); added (c); and made related changes.

The 2009 amendment inserted “nonetheless” in (c)(1), and made a minor punctuation change.

The 2011 amendment substituted “seventy-five (75)” for “seventy (70)” in (a); and substituted “seventy-fifth” for “seventieth” in (c)(1).

Case Notes

Purpose.

The purpose of former similar law was to advise the election commissioners of the questions to the end that the questions might be placed on the ballot. Fulkerson v. Refunding Bd., 201 Ark. 957, 147 S.W.2d 980 (1941) (decision under prior law).

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 2012–2020 · leading case: Richardson v. Martin, 2014 Ark. 429 (Ark. 2014).
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Richardson v. Martin, 2014 Ark. 429 (Ark. 2014). · cites it 2× “On August 15, 2014, Bowlin filed additional petitions with signatures and on August 21, 2014, pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 7-5-204 (Repl.2011), Martin certified the amendment as Issue No.”
Andrew Kimbrell v. John Thurston, in His Off. Capacity as Sec'y of State for the State of Arkansas, 2020 Ark. 392 (Ark. 2020). · cites it 2× “10 2018), the Secretary of State must have certified Issue 2 and Issue 3 as amendments to the Arkansas Constitution to the county board of election commissioners in each county for inclusion on the ballot by August 20, 2020. Yet Kimbrell did not file suit until October 9, 2020.”
Walmsley v. Martin, 423 S.W.3d 587 (Ark. 2012). · cites it 2× “See Ark.Code Ann. § 7-5-204(c)(l) (Repl.2011) (directing the secretary to transmit a proposed measure to the county election commissioners if he has not yet determined the sufficiency of a petition or if the measure has been challenged in a court of competent jurisdiction.”
— Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-204(c)(l) — 1 case
Walmsley v. Martin, 423 S.W.3d 587 (Ark. 2012). “See Ark.Code Ann. § 7-5-204(c)(l) (Repl.2011) (directing the secretary to transmit a proposed measure to the county election commissioners if he has not yet determined the sufficiency of a petition or if the measure has been challenged in a court of competent jurisdiction.”
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