Hi Jack,

If you haven’t voted yet, we wanted to send you a quick note on some of the ballot measures that you’ll need to decide on.

This year, Arkansas has FOUR initiatives. Kelly has made TikToks breaking each of those measures down, so if you’d like to learn more, click the links below!

Ballot Measure #1: An Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution Concerning Extraordinary Sessions of the General Assembly.

This measure would give the Arkansas Legislature the power to call and set agendas for special sessions. Currently, only the Governor can call a special session for our leaders to come together and vote on an impromptu law, so this question is asking: Do you want your state representatives and senators to be able to do so?

How Kelly is voting: NO

Ballot Measure #2: A Constitutional Amendment to be Known as the “Constitutional Amendment and Ballot Initiative Reform Amendment”.

If Issue No. 2 passed, this would change the requirements to pass statewide amendments and initiatives by vote. Right now, if an initiative garners 50% of the ‘yes’ vote, it will pass, but this measure would require 60% of voters to vote ‘yes’ to pass a ballot measure.

Currently, a 50% ‘yes’ vote will allow an initiative to pass. Issue No. 2 would change this to a 60% ‘yes’ vote required for passage – and that’ll make it really hard for Arkansans to pass laws they care about.

How Kelly is voting: NO

Ballot Measure #3:  An Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution to Create the “Arkansas Religious Freedom Amendment”.

Now, in our opinion, this one is a little sketchy. We *already* have religious freedom. At best it’s redundant considering all the rules already in place to protect our religious freedoms, at worst could open up an opportunity to discriminate or possibly break state laws in the name of religious freedom.

How Kelly is voting: NO

Ballot Measure #4: An Amendment to Authorize the Possession, Personal Use, and Consumption of Cannabis by Adults, to Authorize the Cultivation and Sale of Cannabis by Licensed Commercial Facilities, and to Provide for the Regulation of those Facilities.

This measure would legalize recreational marijuana use across our state for persons aged 21 or older.

While we were quick to support this initiative, we did some more research. This initiative will legalize cannabis; however, it won’t expunge the records of those incarcerated for possession in the past. It’s going to allow current cultivators to get REALLY rich, and they won’t be motivated to make it a more competitive market.

That said, people still get arrested for simple possession, and this would drastically decrease that. 

While Kelly and our team support the legalization of marijuana, we’re not sure this is the best way to do that. Hoping for a better option could be tricky if Ballot Measure #2 two passes.

We encourage you to weigh your options here.

You can watch Kelly’s videos (linked above) to learn more about her stance on these issues, but we recommend you do your research.

Learn more about these constitutional amendments at this link: www.uaex.uada.edu/ballot

Please feel free to share this email with others – and again, if you haven’t voted already, make your plan to go to the polls to cast your ballot.

More soon,

Team Kelly