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Arkansas Senate committee OKs bill to regulate paper ballots and hand counts
A group of state senators on Thursday voted to require Arkansas counties that opt to hand count election returns to first run ballots through vote-counting machines. Senate Bill 250 sponsor Rep. Kim Hammer (R-Benton) and state election officials said the legislation would ensure that preliminary, unofficial election results are reported quickly. Counties would still have […]
Arkansas governor’s education package advances to Senate
The Senate Education Committee after more than five hours of testimony Wednesday approved Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ sweeping education plan over bipartisan calls for amendments. Dozens of teachers, students, parents and administrator groups testified at the occasionally tense hearing. Senate Bill 294, also called the LEARNS Act, is the culmination of Sanders’ chief priority to […]
Arkansas group pitches hand-count elections to counties as Legislature prepares to weigh in
An Arkansas group with connections to former President Donald Trump is traveling the state with a pitch to county quorum courts: ditch the voting machines. Instead, the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative urges counties to rely on paper ballots marked and counted by hand. The group had existed in relative obscurity since it was formed last […]
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ sweeping education plan filed in 144-page bill
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ long-awaited education bill was filed Monday. The wide-ranging, 144-page bill was published on the Arkansas Legislature’s website just before 5 p.m. Senate Bill 294, also called the LEARNS Act, has 25 sponsors in the Senate and 55 in the House. All are Republicans. The Senate has 35 members; the House has […]
SESSION SNAPSHOT: Tough love at the Arkansas Capitol as bills stall, fail in Week 6
We start our recap of the sixth week of the 2023 Arkansas legislative session wishing you a happy #arlegvalentines. As for the news, there was a lot of it, but fewer major announcements, hearings and debates than in recent weeks. Here are some highlights from Week 6: Lawmakers filed a host of election legislation on […]
Arkansas committee OKs bill to make it harder for citizens to put initiatives on the ballot
A state Senate panel on Thursday advanced a proposal to make it harder for citizen-led petitions to qualify for the ballot, going even farther than a constitutional amendment Arkansans rejected from the Legislature in 2020. The Senate Committee on State Agencies and Government Affairs sent Senate Bill 260 to the full Senate in a split […]
Arkansas Senate committee votes to forbid absentee ballot drop boxes
A group of Arkansas senators recommended Thursday that the full Senate pass a ban on ballot drop boxes — a process that isn’t happening in Arkansas. Bill sponsor Sen. Tyler Dees (R-Siloam Springs) said Senate Bill 258 would prevent the use absentee ballot drop boxes, which he called a “beacon of mistrust,” from coming to […]
Arkansas panel votes to ban state investments with managers who consider ESG factors
Arkansas lawmakers voted on Wednesday to divest state holdings from financial services providers that do not invest in energy or firearms companies. Approval from the House State Agencies and Government Affairs Committee was House Bill 1307‘s first step to becoming law. It now goes before the full House for consideration. The bill directs the state […]
SESSION SNAPSHOT: Legislation marches on and a sneak peak at the governor’s education package
The fifth week of the 2023 legislative session finally brought us Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ education plan — sort of. The bill hasn’t been filed (more on that later), but she outlined some of the key components of a sweeping piece of legislation that would bring drastic changes to K-12 education in Arkansas. Vouchers, a […]
Governor shares details of education overhaul proposal
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday unveiled some details of her long-awaited education overhaul plan, which includes raising the minimum teacher salary to $50,000 and rolling out a new school voucher program that will eventually be available to all Arkansans. During a press conference inside the Capitol, Sanders said providing every child with access to […]
SESSION SNAPSHOT: Arkansas Legislature rolls through Week 4 with ice and amendments
The fourth week of the Arkansas General Assembly’s 2023 legislative session brought lots of ice and amendments. Senate Bill 43, which targeted drag shows, has demanded the most attention of any legislation through the first month of the session, but by the time the House and Senate adjourned for the weekend, it had been so […]
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver GOP response to Biden State of the Union address
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver the Republicans’ address to the nation from Little Rock on Tuesday following President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech to Congress. U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sanders would offer Americans an alternative to Biden and the Democrats’ view of […]