Pope County Ordinance No. 2018-0-42 is — at least in part — probably unconstitutional. The requirement to have “a majority of the registered voters of Pope County” authorize the judge and/or quorum court to issue a letter of support for casino approvals violates the provisions of the Arkansas constitution.
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Pope County Ordinance No. 2018-0-42 passed with a vote of 12,209 to 5,728 (total vote 17,937) yet would require a much higher total vote to authorize a letter of support for a casino. That requirement violates the majority approval requirement of the Arkansas constitution.
From the AR constitution: “Any measure submitted to the people as herein provided shall take effect and become a law when approved by a majority of the votes cast upon such measure, and not otherwise, and shall not be required to receive a majority of the electors voting at such election.”
in paragraph 3.1 of the Pope County ordinance, it states if such election was to be called, it would require “a majority of the registered voters of Pope County,” not simply a majority of votes cast.
From a March 29, 2019 article in the Arkansas Times: To put this into perspective, there are 34,792 registered voters in Pope County, meaning 17,397 voters would have to come out to an election, and all 17,397 would have to vote one way. Taking into account only 18,051 people voted in the last general election, you can easily see this is a threshold which can never be attained.
This post was originally published on Facebook July 10, 2019.