Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-208 (2026)

1. All election ballots provided by the county board of election commissioners of any county in this state for any election shall be alike and shall be in plain type.
2. 1. The heading of each ballot shall be: “OFFICIAL BALLOT (description) ELECTION (date) , (year)
   2. If the ballot contains an initiated or referred amendment, act, or measure, the heading shall also contain these words: “Vote on amendments, acts, and measures by placing an appropriate mark below the amendment (or act or measure) either FOR or AGAINST.”
3. 1. Every ballot shall contain the name of each candidate who has been nominated or has qualified in accordance with law for each office. The names of the candidates shall be listed in a perpendicular column under the name of each office to be filled.
   2. In all elections in which votes for a write-in candidate may be counted, at the bottom of each list of names for each position or office appearing on the ballot, there shall be a blank line for a possible write-in vote for that position or office. However, the blank line shall not appear on the ballot with respect to those offices and candidates for positions in which no person has qualified as a write-in candidate by filing his or her notice of intention to be a write-in candidate within the time prescribed in § 7-5-205.
4. Adjacent to the name of each candidate and on the same line there shall be a place for marking a vote for the candidate. Below each act, amendment, or measure to be voted on, there shall be the words “FOR” and “AGAINST” situated one above the other with a place for marking a vote for the act, amendment, or measure adjacent to each word and on the same line.
5. Opposite the designation of each office, there shall appear these words: “VOTE FOR .” The number of persons required to fill the vacancy in office shall be placed in the blank space.

Vote by placing an appropriate mark opposite the person for whom you wish to vote.”

History. Acts 1969, No. 465, Art. 6, § 13; 1971, No. 224, § 1; 1971, No. 261, §§ 11, 20, 22; 1971, No. 355, §§ 1-3; 1979, No. 389, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 3-613; Acts 1987, No. 280, §§ 1, 2; 1993, No. 1011, § 1; 1995, No. 461, § 1; 1997, No. 451, § 13; 1999, No. 640, § 2; 2005, No. 1677, § 4; 2005, No. 2233, § 3; 2007, No. 705, § 1; 2007, No. 1049, § 16; 2009, No. 1480, § 20; 2011, No. 1020, § 1.

Amendments. The 2007 amendment by No. 705 deleted former (d) and redesignated the remaining subsections accordingly; substituted “below” for “above” in present (d)(2); rewrote the introductory language in present (e); in present (f), rewrote (2)(A) and (3), and in (5), inserted “except for the nonpartisan judicial general election”; rewrote present (g) and (h); and made related and stylistic changes.

The 2007 amendment by No. 1049, in present (f)(4), substituted “sixty-five (65)” for “thirty-five (35),” and made a stylistic change.

The 2009 amendment deleted “Paper” at the beginning of the section heading; and rewrote the section.

The 2011 amendment substituted “below” for “above” (b)(2).