Petition measures, maternal health bills pass Senate; sports raffle act fails in committee

The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday (Feb. 12) passed five measures to alter the petition signature gathering process, while also advancing the governor’s maternal health package. In the Arkansas House, members pushed forward a companion maternal health bill, but a key committee defeated a high-profile sports raffle bill.

Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, is the lead sponsor on SB 207, SB 208, SB 209, SB 210 and SB 211 – a package of bills that puts new stipulations on canvassers of citizen petitions. The bills require canvassers to disclose that petition fraud is a misdemeanor; require photo IDs before obtaining a petition signature; require a petition signer to read the ballot title in the presence of a canvasser; and sets conditions for the disqualification of signatures if laws are violated.

Hammer, who has announced he will seek the office of Secretary of State in 2026, told colleagues the canvassing bills aim to provide integrity and guardrails in the process of collecting signatures for ballot initiatives.

“We have increasing outside influence in this process,” said Hammer, who cited instances in recent election cycles where he claimed canvassers were misleading voters to get them to sign petitions.

Despite legal objections raised by opponents of the bills, Hammer said Attorney General Tim Griffin helped him craft the bills and stood by their constitutionality.

“They are all vetted to be constitutionally sound,” said Hammer. “The AG is ready to defend these bills.”

Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, was one of the senators who spoke against the measures. He said every harm Hammer cited in the bills was already covered by law, and he questioned the restrictiveness of the bills.

“The people reserve to themselves the power to propose legislative measures, laws, and amendments to the constitution,” said Tucker, quoting the constitution. “Every session since 2013, we have passed laws to make the petition process more difficult.”

While Hammer argued that many of the changes he proposed are similar to requirements to vote, Tucker said there was a distinction between signing a petition and supporting a measure. He added that the state constitution allows citizen initiatives to have equal weight with the legislative branch in proposing laws.

“We’re putting a lot of restrictions on one group of lawmakers without looking at ourselves,” said Tucker. “I don’t believe the people support these measures.”

All five bills passed with strong partisan support from Republican lawmakers. Needing 18 votes to pass, each bill in the package received anywhere from 21 to 27 yes votes. Democrats voted in bloc to oppose the bills and were joined on a few votes from Republicans who raised concerns about potential scenarios that could cause legal questions.

The Senate also passed 30-0 SB 213, the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act led by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View. The bill, supported by Gov. Sarah Sanders as part of her effort to address poor maternal health statistics, now heads to the House for consideration.

A mirror bill, HB 1427, led by Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, passed the House 86-6 and will now move through the Senate. Pilkington and Irvin are collaborating on the companion bills, which are expected to be on the governor’s desk by the middle of next week.

A House Rules committee meeting that lasted most of the day saw a bill defeated that would have allowed for sports raffles to be controlled by higher education institutions for fundraising for athletic departments and student-athletes.

HB 1044 by Rep. RJ Hawk, R-Bryant, would allow the use of raffle funds by an institution of higher education and affiliated nonprofit organizations to support “charitable, philanthropic, or educational purposes.” According to testimony, a university could conduct a raffle and split the proceeds 50-50 with a winner and the school, which in turn could use it for NIL (name, image, and likeness) pools of money. Or a smaller college might raffle off a donated car with proceeds being kept by the college. As many as 50 universities and colleges in the U.S. have adopted raffles for this purpose, according to testimony heard in committee.

The bill was supported by the athletic directors of the University of Arkansas, University of Central Arkansas, UA Little Rock, and Arkansas State University. Despite their support, committee members were persuaded by the testimony of Carlton Saffa, chief market officer for Saracen Casino Resort.

Saffa argued there could be problems with conducting the sports raffles through the provisions of the bill. He advocated that Saracen, Oaklawn, and Southland casinos across the state could work with the schools to set up a less costly and potentially more streamlined process. He noted that provisions of Amendment 100, which govern legalized gambling in the state, would be more advantageous for structuring an Arkansas version of this type of raffle.

After a lengthy question-and-answer session with lawmakers, Saffa proposed working with the universities and the bill’s sponsor to draft a different bill for consideration next week.

In closing for his bill, Hawk said HB1044 was “a fundraising bill, not a gambling bill,” but House Rules committee members voted against it.

Hawk tells Talk Business & Politics that he plans to talk to committee members over the next few days and see if he can address their objections to the bill and find a way to move the bill forward.