Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Constitution Delegate Election Unsure

Though a special election has been called, no one is sure it will actually be held.

The election is to decide whether or not to hold a constitutional convention and to elect delegates for the convention. It's scheduled for Dec. 12, if it's held.

Anser Sanjrani, an election assistant with the Secretary of State's office, said as far as they know the election is on.

However, he said the Arkansas Supreme Court is involved and could call the election off at any time. In the meantime, though, he said the office is preparing as though the election will be held.

David Morris, administrative assistant with the Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC), likened the current scenario to the Arkansas weather -- wait a while and it will change.

"We're advising county election officials to proceed based on the news of the minute," Morris said. "If it's called off, the ballots will be worthless. It's money down the drain."

Morris said the AAC is playing a "wait and see" game with the state's highest court. "It's been a screwed up mess from start to finish," he said of the proposed constitutional election and how the legislature and governor's office handled it in the beginning.

He was less than complimentary of the Arkansas Legislature, saying legislators wrote the proposed draft, and, should the election be held, one-third of the delegates will be legislators. This, he said, will give them an unfair advantage over the rest of the delegates.

"They'll be well versed with the working draft," Morris said. "They'll be influential and more knowledgeable (than the other delegates), and will get their way with the working draft.

"I think it (the constitutional convention) is for show only. It'll be a dog and pony show."

The AAC, however, has taken firm stands on some issues. Morris said the association has voted to seek the reinstatement of the position of coroner as an elected official (it was deleted in the proposed draft), wants the collector to stay as it currently is, and favors four-year terms for all elected county officials.

The way the draft is written, the four-year terms would be local option only and the association opposes this method. Morris said with a local option method, some counties would have their officials elected for four years and others would remain with two-year terms. This makes local government less stable and inconsistent across the state.

The entire mess with the proposed special election came about when Little Rock Circuit Judge Ellen Brantly declared the document's emergency clause null and void. This called a temporary halt to the election process.

The emergency clause was placed in the legislation to speed up the process and keep it from taking until March 1996 before going to the people. The clause, installed by the Arkansas General Assembly during a special session, in Brantly's opinion, did not show an emergency situation to exist. This is why she ruled against it.

Max Parker, with the governor's office, said Brantly's ruling could cause problems with legislation later on. She said one-third of all legislation passed contains similar emergency clauses.

The clauses, she said, are simply to speed up the process and get legislation into law faster.

However, Brantly's ruling means any legislation passed with an emergency clause must have the emergency clearly spelled out, or the documents can be held up for months before becoming effective.

The judge cited a West Memphis city ordinance as the basis for her ruling. The ordinance was upheld by the ASC because the court found the emergency clause it contained was not specified and the emergency not clearly stated.

A release from the governor's office states reasons a new constitution is needed.

It states the people of Arkansas were denied the right to vote on six issues in the last election because of the language in the current constitution;

The state, it states, was faced with a court order which could lead to courts taking over school funding, but had its hands tied by the 1874 document which requires the state to provide public schools, but assumes local districts will provide the funding;

Some 50 counties in the state were faced with possible bankruptcy this past June because the court interpreted a provision of the constitution as prohibiting local voters from being able to decide how to pay for jails, garbage collection and other services with sales taxes; and

A court appeal is currently underway which could force the state to choose between following the constitution and losing millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funds.

"The motto of our state is `The People Rule,'" the release states. "But the people who rule right now are those who lived more than 120 years ago."

The following are some of the situations which existed in 1874 when the state's constitution was adopted:

The western border of Arkansas was Indian Territory;

Civil War Reconstruction was still in progress; and

Land sold for $1.25 per acre.

In Senate District 3, there are four candidates vying for positions as delegates. They are, in order of appearance on the local ballot: Alfred A. Smith; Bob Fisher; Gwen Pennington Diemer; and Delbert DuCharme.

The ballot will also allow voters to decide whether or not to even hold a constitutional convention.