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Understanding Arkansas 2024 Ballot Issues
10 Plays5 months ago
Stand Up Arkansas: Voter Ballot Election Guide 2024 - Issues Explained!
Join Steve and Kelly with Stand Up Arkansas as they break down the 2024 voter ballot. This episode covers the key issues Arkansans will vote on, including the legislative-backed Issue 1, which seeks to allow state lottery proceeds to fund vocational and technical school scholarships, and Issue 2, a contentious local democracy matter involving the Pope County casino license. Understand the implications of each measure and get informed on how these could impact your community. Share this guide with friends to ensure everyone makes an informed decision at the ballot box.
We are not affiliated in any manner with the UA System - the Ballot Issue Guide is listed for access to the QR code for more in depth non-partisan information.
00:00 Introduction to the 2024 Voter Ballot Guide
00:24 Overview of Ballot Issues
01:01 Issue One: State Lottery Proceeds for Vocational Schools
03:38 Issue Two: Repealing Pope County Casino License
08:23 Conclusion and Voting Recommendations
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Stand Up Arkansas'
00:00:09
Speaker
This is Steve. And this is Kelly. And this is Stand
Preview of 2024 Voter Ballot Topics
00:00:12
Speaker
Up Arkansas. We're doing our voter ballot election guide 2024.
Understanding Ballot Issues: Marijuana and More
00:00:17
Speaker
And it is just kind of running down all the different parts of the ballot, who's on the ballot, the people we know. Right now we want to talk about the issues that are on the ballot. The two issues gets a lot of people confused. And every time you go to the ball ballot booth,
00:00:35
Speaker
most people are like, going what are these issues about? So this is something feel free to share with your friends. We're going to tell you what the issues are, how we voted and why. And maybe you can just share that with your friends. So there are two issues on the ballot. Actually, there's three. The third one doesn't count. It's about marijuana. The Supreme Court threw it out so that those votes don't count because it got thrown out after it was already put on the ballot.
Legislative Path to Ballot Issues
00:01:01
Speaker
But we're going to be talking about issue number one and issue number two.
00:01:05
Speaker
There's two ways for an issue to get on the ballot. I'll tell you about the first way. The legislature is allowed to put issues every two years on the ballot. They get to decide what they want the people to vote for. This is generally things around constitutional amendments that they don't have the power of.
Direct Democracy in Arkansas
00:01:23
Speaker
Issue one was a general assembly sponsored and it's not a people's issue. Kelly will tell us how that gets on the ballot.
00:01:33
Speaker
So we did not put this up, but the second one is a different kind of story. Yeah. So it's direct democracy, right? And direct democracy, basically the people of Arkansas can get together and do petitions. One of 16 states in the country where we have full on direct democracy. So that means that we can write a bill, we can get enough signatures and we can put it to the vote.
00:01:56
Speaker
We all know that that has its own unique set of challenges, which is probably for another episode.
Key Ballot Issue: People's Choice
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, because ah ah this is what you've probably heard about reproductive rights, how they got 100,000 plus signatures, and then the Secretary of State threw it out, and the Supreme Court upheld him because it was all political. There is one of those issues on the ballot also, and we're going to talk about that. That's issue two. That's a people's issue.
Lottery Proceeds for Education
00:02:22
Speaker
Okay, so the first issue, issue one of 2024, allowing state lottery proceeds to fund vocational or technical school scholarships for Arkansas. We've had this state lottery that we've already voted on as a people and that money already went to to colleges and this is just expanding that a little further. and Just to allow
00:02:46
Speaker
uh, vote tech schools and such to be able to have access to those funds as well. I think that is a great bill. Um, I'm very supportive of it. I voted for when I early voted. I think more people with education at any level is good. Well, and there literally is no opposition to this. Like you have to file if you're a formal opposition, um, to one of these issues and they're,
00:03:12
Speaker
Everybody's for it. And I really think, you know, where're we represent rural Arkansas, and I really believe that this is going to impact our rural communities in a positive way, even more so than possibly in our urban communities, just because I think there are more kids who are looking at VOTEC and such in our rural communities, and this will give them another avenue to be able to afford that. so all in on issue one.
Casino License Debate in Pope County
00:03:38
Speaker
Well and and the last thing I'll say is not every kid goes to college. Right. So let's spread the wealth and let's get as many people educated to the farthest level we can get them educated. Yep. Okay we're gonna go to issue number two. Now this is where it gets real complicated.
00:03:53
Speaker
so intentionally it is intentional so issue two of 2024 I'm just gonna read the what's called the popular title or popular name repealing Polk County casino license and requiring local elections
00:04:14
Speaker
So let's see how much we can confuse the people of Arkansas so that we can um take the money into another state. So here's what's going to happen. So a few years ago, the people came together in a direct democracy move that would allow us to have four casinos or gambling facilities across the state.
00:04:43
Speaker
You know, we already had the the Greyhound over in West Memphis. um bla Well, this allowed, this is how Pine Bluff and Saracen and that came to be. And if y'all remember, and that's when in Hot Springs, they opened the casino at that time. Right. Which is great revenue for Arkansas because where was everybody going before that? they were going over the state lines.
Influence of Out-of-State Money on Casino Issue
00:05:05
Speaker
Right. So it's good. This is good. No, that's a very important distinction to bring up in this. So the fourth one needed to be on that Northwest side of the state. And y'all, this is something that you want because around casinos is jobs and it is um bringing revenue, tourism, restaurants.
00:05:26
Speaker
more money for your education system, more money for your city, it's good. So this was going to happen in Pope County. When they did the petition and ran the Citizens Initiative, it said that we were going to put this in Pope County. So the people have already voted on that. The answer was yes, we are going to put this in Pope County.
00:05:49
Speaker
So the problem is, is those casinos that Kelly was talking about, they were right across the state line. If you go right past Portsmouth, which is just another hour or so down the road, you hit the Oklahoma casinos. So they're the ones that started, they paid, what did you read today? $30 million? dollars and Something like that. It's insane the amount of money they spent. We heard that they were paying people $50 an hour.
00:06:19
Speaker
to collect signatures. And y'all, that is not what direct democracy is about. That is not how our system was built to go pay $50 an hour to shut down a revenue stream in Polk County. but i don't i don't I don't understand how that makes any sense at all. And I'm going to go officially on the record. I don't think you should be able to pay canvassers to get signatures. I agree. If it, in the spirit of what direct democracy is, this is a people's movement. Regnant populace. Let the
Call to Action: Vote No on Issue Two
00:06:48
Speaker
people rule. But when you have casino money from outside the state coming in and paying people $50 an hour to collect signatures. To stop something from happening that the people of Arkansas had already voted on?
00:07:03
Speaker
and we read today and i can't remember if it was 30 million total that was spent you know there's there's a section of the people in arkansas that's fighting to keep the chance to have a casino there and they spent like 13 million dollars like there's it is it's ridiculous y'all it is ridiculous and this is not what direct democracy is it makes me angry because this is outside money interests coming in to reverse the people's decision so it is a firm no vote no spread the word to vote no we cannot allow outside money to come in and take our revenue source away
00:07:50
Speaker
This is our money going out to another state. Right. It's jobs that our people of Pope County will have unless we allow this to happen. We have to vote no on issue two. Better roads, more money for education, more tax spen revenue based in lower, what we we're responsible for, for taxes in Arkansas. Like, come on, let's get behind this and make sure they're not confusing you. They're trying to confuse you.
00:08:16
Speaker
This is big money right here. This is big money. That is all it is. Vote no on issue two. Vote no. Vote no. Vote no. Vote yes on issue one. Vote no on issue two. Vote however you want on issue three because it doesn't really matter. Right. Y'all, I'm Steve. I'm Kelly. And go out there and vote and let everybody know what's going on.