A federal judge in Arkansas has struck down several state laws that imposed extra hurdles on citizens attempting to collect signatures for ballot initiatives, ruling that the measures infringed on voters’ constitutional free speech protections.
The ruling delivered multiple wins for the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and other groups that filed the lawsuit last year. The case came amid a broader push across multiple states to make it more difficult for ordinary citizens to change laws or amend state constitutions through the ballot initiative process.
Among the challenged restrictions was a requirement that anyone signing a petition first show a photo ID. These additional restrictions on ballot initiatives were put in place by Arkansas’ Republican-controlled state government after election officials used a legal technicality to throw out petitions filed by abortion rights advocates during a 2024 campaign to legalize abortion in the conservative state.
One of the groups involved in the lawsuit, Protect AR Rights, described the ruling as an “important victory for the people of Arkansas and their constitutional right to direct democracy.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks issued the decision on Tuesday. While it favored the plaintiffs on several points, Brooks also rejected some of their challenges and sent three additional disputes to trial.
Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester, a Republican who defended the laws in court, responded with a statement saying his office intends to appeal and “will fight tirelessly for common sense safeguards like voter ID.”
Among the laws Brooks invalidated were 2025 measures requiring canvassers to verify a petition signer’s identity using a photo ID, as well as rules requiring either the canvasser to read the ballot question aloud or the signer to read the entire question before signing. Those ballot questions are frequently several hundred words in length.
Brooks wrote that forcing a petition signer to show photo ID “before engaging in core political speech” is a clear violation of free speech protections. He also noted that the Arkansas secretary of state’s office already checks every signature to confirm the signer is a registered voter.
In his ruling, Brooks explained that the ID requirement dictates what a registered voter “must do before signing a petition and what a canvasser must do before allowing them to,” adding that it “impedes supporters of a measure from expressing their views by signing a petition.”
State officials had argued that requiring the ballot question to be read before signing was needed to stop canvassers from misrepresenting what the petition was about. However, Brooks noted that the state had declined to prosecute reported cases of canvasser misconduct, and said the state should enforce its existing laws rather than “imposing burdensome speech codes on good and bad actors alike.”
