Court Opinion

ID: 9773611
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:51:48.433471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:55.555783
License: Public Domain

Richard B. Adkisson, Chief Justice. Appellants brought an action in the chancery court of Pulaski County to enjoin appellee, Paul Riviere, Secretary of State, from furnishing the State Board and County Boards of Election Commissioners with the “Ballot Title” of proposed Amendment 60. The trial court held that, although not required, the “Ballot Title” was sufficient and refused to grant the injunction. On appeal, we affirm. Proposed Amendment 60, which deals with interest rates on loans, was promulgated by House Joint Resolution 7 of the 1981 General Assembly. It was proposed pursuant to Art. 19, § 22 of the Arkansas Constitution which provides: Constitutional amendments. — Either branch of the General Assembly at a regular session thereof may propose amendments to this Constitution, and, if the same be agreed to by a majority of all members elected to each house, such proposed amendments shall be entered on the journals with the yeas and nays, and published in at least one newspaper in each county, where a newspaper is published, for six months immediately preceding the next general election for Senators and Representatives, at which time the same shall be submitted to the electors of the State for approval or rejection; and if a majority of the electors voting at such election adopt such amendments the same shall become a part of this Constitution; but no more than three amendments shall be proposed or submitted at the same time. They shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each amendment separately. (Emphasis supplied) The General Assembly gave proposed Amendment 60 a “Ballot Title,” although Art. 19, § 22 does not require that one be given to an amendment submitted by the General Assembly. Appellants argue that we should review this “Ballot Title” by the standard we use in reviewing a ballot title of an amendment proposed by the people pursuant to Amendment 7. We disagree. An Amendment 7 standard of review should not be applied to an Art. 19, § 22 “Ballot Title” because there are significant differences between Amendment 7 and Art. 19, § 22. Amendment 7 does not require publication of the proposed amendment except as may be required by the General Assembly, but it does provide a safeguard by specifically requiring that the proposed amendment have a ballot title. The purpose of such a ballot title is to inform the voter so that he can mark his ballot with a fair understanding of the issues presented. Hoban v. Hall, 229 Ark. 416, 316 S.W.2d 185 (1958). On review of an Amendment 7 ballot title, we look to see if the title is “free from any misleading tendency, whether of amplification, of omission, or of fallacy.” Bradley v. Hall, 220 Ark. 925, 251 S.W.2d 470 (1952). On the other hand, as pointed out above, Art. 19., § 22 does not specifically require a ballot title. All that is required is that the proposed amendments under Art. 19, § 22 “be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each amendment separately.” So, the purpose of the “Ballot Title” under Art. 19, § 22 is not to inform the voter, but merely to distinguish and identify the amendment. Voters can be presumed to be informed as to the contents of the amendment since Art. 19, § 22 specifically requires an extended publication period of six separate monthly insertions in one newspaper in each county prior to the election. See Jones v. McDade, 200 Ala. 230, 75 So. 988 (1917). When the purpose of a ballot title is to identify, as opposed to inform, the title is sufficient if it distinguishes the proposed amendment from others and is recognizable as referring to the amendment that was previously published in the newspapers. A ballot title which meets this test will be upheld unless it is worded in some way so as to constitute a manifest fraud upon the public. Here, the actual wording of the “Ballot Title” in question is as follows: An Amendment to Section 13 of Article XIX of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas to Control Interest Rates and Set the Penalty for Violations Thereof. It is not suggested that this wording is insufficient to distinguish or identify the amendment. Affirmed. George Rose Smith, Hickman, and Purtle, JJ„ dissent.