Proposed Amendment To Lengthen County Official Terms Gets AG Approval

With a minor recommendation for a ballot title change, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel okayed a petition effort to move forward that would extend county elected officials’ terms from two years to four years.

Pine Bluff political activist David Dinwiddie’s proposed constitutional amendment to expand term limits for county elected positions includes the office for County Judge, Justice of the Peace, County Sheriff, County Collector, County Treasurer, County Assessor, Circuit Clerk, County Clerk, County Coroner, County Surveyor, and Constable.

County officials are not term-limited, but they must run for election or re-election every two years. The proposed measure would alter those terms to a four-year cycle.

With AG approval, Dinwiddie can begin the process of collecting signatures to qualify the measure for next year’s general election ballot.

He must collect 78,133 signatures of registered Arkansas voters by July 7, 2014 in order to place the proposed constitutional amendment on next year’s ballot.

If the measure qualifies and is approved by voters in the November 2014 election, it would go into effect for any official sworn in after December 31, 2014.