To Require Ballot Titles For Initiated Measures To Be At Or Under A Certain Reading Level; And To Declare An Emergency

HB1713 would prohibit the Attorney General from certifying any ballot title for an initiated act or constitutional amendment if it is written above an eighth-grade reading level, as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test. While framed as a measure to promote clarity, this bill creates a rigid and unnecessary hurdle that could prevent otherwise valid citizen-led initiatives from reaching the ballot.

The ACLU of Arkansas opposes HB1713 because it imposes an arbitrary and overly simplistic standard on a deeply democratic process. Important public policy issues often require nuance and precision that may not conform to formulaic readability scores. This bill threatens to undermine direct democracy in Arkansas by giving the Attorney General excessive discretion to block measures, limiting voters’ access to a full and fair range of ideas.