Arkansans sign petitions in support of proposed ballot initiatives in Little Rock on July 2, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at protecting direct democracy in Arkansas was rejected a second time Tuesday by the state’s attorney general because it failed to comply with a new law that prohibits ballot titles from being written above an eighth-grade reading level.
Approved by state lawmakers in April, Act 602 prohibits the attorney general from certifying a proposed ballot title with a reading level above eighth grade as determined by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula. The test uses word complexity and sentence lengths to calculate what grade of education is needed to comprehend written material…