If an organization's salaried employee collects ballot-petition signatures as part of their job, does Arkansas law treat them as a 'paid canvasser' subject to the registration and background-check rules?
Plain-English summary
State Senator Linda Chesterfield asked whether a salaried employee whose job duties include collecting petition signatures qualifies as a "paid canvasser" under Arkansas law, when the employee's compensation stays the same whether or not signature gathering happens that day.
Attorney General Tim Griffin said yes to both relevant statutes. "Paid canvasser" is defined in A.C.A. § 7-9-601(c) as "a person who is paid or with whom there is an agreement to pay money or anything of value…in exchange for soliciting a signature on a petition." When an employee performs job duties for compensation, including soliciting signatures, the work is being done "in exchange for" salary, even if singling out one duty does not change the total pay.
The same conclusion applies to A.C.A. § 7-9-109, the statute that governs the canvasser-affidavit form attached to every petition. The two statutes were enacted together in Act 1413 of 2013 and use "paid canvasser" with a presumption of consistent meaning.
The practical effect: organizations that use salaried staff for signature collection have to treat those staff as paid canvassers. That triggers § 7-9-601's package of requirements (training in petition law, disqualifying-offense screening, registration), and the canvasser must check the "Paid Canvasser" box on the affidavit form. Failure to meet § 7-9-601's requirements means the Secretary of State will not count those signatures.
What this means for you
If you are a nonprofit, advocacy group, or PAC running a ballot measure
Audit your staffing model. If you have employees who will be soliciting signatures as part of their job, even alongside other duties, treat them as paid canvassers from day one. Specifically:
- Run them through the disqualifying-offense screening before they touch a petition.
- Provide them with the training in Arkansas petition law that § 7-9-601 requires.
- Register them with the Secretary of State as paid canvassers if § 7-9-601 requires it.
- Ensure they check "Paid Canvasser" on the affidavit form.
- Document compliance with everything § 7-9-601(d) imposes.
The cost of getting this wrong is signatures being thrown out wholesale. Arkansans for Healthy Eyes v. Thurston (2020) confirmed that the do-not-count rule is strictly applied.
If you are a volunteer canvasser
If you are not being paid (no salary, no per-signature bounty, no compensation tied in any way to your participation), you are a "Volunteer/Unpaid Canvasser" and check that box on the affidavit. The "paid" trigger is whether someone is paying you for the work, not what the form looks like or what your title is. If a friend buys you lunch as thanks for canvassing, that is not "anything of value in exchange for" signatures. If a sponsor agrees to pay you (per signature, per hour, or as part of a job) you are paid.
If you are an organization that pays per signature
The "in exchange for" definition fits straightforwardly: per-signature payments are direct quid pro quo. All of § 7-9-601's requirements apply. This opinion did not change anything for that model; it just confirmed the same rule applies when payment is structured as a salary that includes signature gathering as a duty.
If you are a Secretary of State staffer or county elections official
This opinion is a clean citation when faced with a sponsor arguing that salaried employees should not count as paid canvassers. The AG's reading is unambiguous: salary plus signature-gathering equals paid canvasser status.
Common questions
Q: Our employees would have collected the same paycheck whether or not they canvassed. Doesn't that mean they were not paid 'in exchange for' canvassing?
A: No. The AG rejected that argument. When an employee performs job duties for compensation, each duty is being performed in exchange for the salary. Singling out one duty does not change the analysis. The statutory phrase "in exchange for" is defined as "in return for" or "as a trade for," not as a per-task variable payment.
Q: What about an unpaid intern who is reimbursed for transportation?
A: The opinion does not address that. The statutory definition is "paid…money or anything of value." Reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses is arguably not compensation but the boundary is fuzzy. Talk to an election-law attorney before treating an arrangement as volunteer.
Q: What is a "disqualifying offense" under § 7-9-601?
A: The opinion lists the cross-references but does not detail the offenses. They are set out in § 7-9-601(a)(2)(E)–(G), (b), and (d)(3). Generally felonies and certain election-law-related convictions disqualify someone from being a paid canvasser.
Q: If a salaried employee improperly checks "Volunteer/Unpaid Canvasser" on the affidavit, what happens?
A: Under § 7-9-601(f), signatures collected by paid canvassers who did not meet paid-canvasser requirements are not counted. The mismatch could also expose the canvasser and sponsor to other enforcement.
Q: Does this rule apply to county- or city-level petitions?
A: This opinion addresses statewide initiative and referendum petitions under § 7-9-601 and § 7-9-109. Local-petition rules are governed by separate statutes. A.C.A. § 14-14-107 covers some county-level petition mechanics; consult those statutes for local petitions.
Background and statutory framework
A.C.A. § 7-9-601 sets a comprehensive regime for paid canvassers on statewide petitions:
- Definition (§ 7-9-601(c)): A "paid canvasser" is a person paid (or with whom there is an agreement to pay) money or anything of value in exchange for soliciting a signature on a petition.
- Prohibition (§ 7-9-601(a)(1)): Organizations and individuals cannot provide money or anything of value to another person for obtaining signatures unless the recipient meets § 7-9-601's requirements.
- Requirements (§ 7-9-601(a)(2), (b), (d)): Disqualifying-offense screening, training in petition law, registration, and disclosure on the affidavit.
- Do-not-count (§ 7-9-601(f)): Signatures collected in violation are not counted.
A.C.A. § 7-9-109 governs the canvasser-affidavit form. Section 7-9-109(a) requires each petition to be verified by a canvasser affidavit "substantially" similar to the statutory form, which asks the canvasser to identify as either a "Paid Canvasser" or a "Volunteer/Unpaid Canvasser."
Both provisions came from Act 1413 of 2013, §§ 11 and 21. The presumption of consistent usage requires "paid canvasser" to mean the same thing in both, even though the formal definition is in § 7-9-601 only.
The AG's analysis applied two canons:
- Ordinary meaning. "In exchange for" means "in return for" or "as a trade for." When an employee does job duties for salary, each duty is being done in exchange for compensation. Corbitt v. Arkansas State Univ., 2024 Ark. 44, requires courts to give statutory text its "ordinary and usually accepted meaning in common language."
- Consistent usage. Statutes on the same subject (here, two enacted in the same act) are presumed to use shared terminology consistently. The AG cited Scalia & Garner, Reading Law.
The Arkansas Supreme Court's decision in Arkansans for Healthy Eyes v. Thurston, 2020 Ark. 270, requires "strict compliance" with the do-not-count provision in § 7-9-601(f).
Citations and references
Statutes:
- A.C.A. § 7-9-109 (canvasser affidavit)
- A.C.A. § 7-9-601 (paid canvasser requirements)
- Act 1413 of 2013 (origin of paid canvasser registration framework)
Cases:
- Arkansans for Healthy Eyes v. Thurston, 2020 Ark. 270, 606 S.W.3d 582 (strict compliance with do-not-count rule)
- Corbitt v. Arkansas State Univ., 2024 Ark. 44, 685 S.W.3d 901 (ordinary meaning rule)
- Baker Refrigeration Sys., Inc. v. Weiss, 360 Ark. 388, 201 S.W.3d 900 (Ark. 2005) (unambiguous text controls)
Source
Original opinion text
Opinion No. 2024-053
July 3, 2024
The Honorable Linda Chesterfield
State Senator
12 Keo Drive
Little Rock, Arkansas 72206
Dear Senator Chesterfield:
I am writing in response to your request for my opinion about who qualifies as a "paid canvasser" when soliciting people for signatures on an initiative or referendum petition. You indicate that multiple organizations that support ballot measures have paid employees who intend to assist in soliciting signatures for petitions "within the scope of [their] pre-existing employment relationship[s]." You report that these employees will receive the same compensation whether or not they solicit signatures as part of their job.
In light of this, you ask the following questions, which I have paraphrased:
- If a canvasser solicits signatures for a petition as part of his or her employment duties, is the person a "paid canvasser" subject to the requirements in A.C.A. § 7-9-601(d)?
- If a canvasser solicits signatures for a petition as part of his or her employment duties, is the person a "paid canvasser" under A.C.A. § 7-9-109?
Brief answer: Yes to both. An employee who is paid to perform job duties, among which is soliciting for signatures, is paid "in exchange for" soliciting signatures.
DISCUSSION
Question 1: If a canvasser solicits signatures for a petition as part of his or her employment duties, is the person a "paid canvasser" subject to the requirements in A.C.A. § 7-9-601(d)?
Organizations and individuals are prohibited from "provid[ing] money or anything of value to another person for obtaining signatures on a statewide initiative petition or statewide referendum petition unless the person receiving the money or item of value meets the requirements of [A.C.A. § 7-9-601]." Any signatures not properly retained under that statute "shall not be counted by the Secretary of State for any purpose."
The only people who may receive compensation under § 7-9-601 for soliciting signatures are "paid canvassers." The definition of "paid canvasser" in § 7-9-601 is limited to that section and means "a person who is paid or with whom there is an agreement to pay money or anything of value…in exchange for soliciting a signature on a petition." These individuals must meet several requirements, including not being convicted of a disqualifying offense and understanding Arkansas law relevant to obtaining petition signatures.
To determine whether an organization's paid employees who solicit petition signatures among other job duties are "paid canvassers" (that is, whether they are paid "in exchange for soliciting a signature"), courts will construe the definition "just as it reads, giving the words their ordinary and usually accepted meaning in common language." If the ordinary meaning is unambiguous, courts look no further and will not consider things such as a statute's or act's title.
Performing a service "in exchange for" payment means that the service is done "in return for" payment or as a "trade" for payment. Someone who is a paid employee performs job duties "in exchange for" compensation. I have found no authority that suggests singling out one job duty (here, soliciting signatures) means that the employee is not performing that duty "in exchange for" a salary or compensation, that is, payment.
Therefore, it is my opinion that a paid employee who solicits signatures as part of his or her job duties is soliciting signatures "in exchange for" payment and is thus a "paid canvasser" as defined by A.C.A § 7-9-601(c).
Question 2: If a canvasser solicits signatures for a petition as part of his or her employment duties, is the person a "paid canvasser" under A.C.A. § 7-9-109?
Under A.C.A. § 7-9-109(a), "[e]ach petition containing signatures shall be verified…by the canvasser's affidavit" on a form "substantially" similar to one provided in the statute. As relevant here, the form asks canvassers to identify if they are a "Paid Canvasser" or a "Volunteer/Unpaid Canvasser."
Although there is no definition of "paid canvasser" for § 7-9-109 (remember, the definition discussed in Question 1 is expressly limited to § 7-9-601), courts will likely find that the terms are synonymous in the two statutes. This is so for two reasons.
First, because there is no statutory definition in § 7-9-109, the ordinary meaning of "paid canvasser" controls. When someone is paid to do something, it means they receive "money…in return for…services rendered." This is almost identical to the statutory definition of "paid canvasser" in § 7-9-601.
Second, § 7-9-109 and § 7-9-601 "relat[e] to the same subject," so they must be read and construed together "because they are considered as having one object in view, and as acting upon one system." Moreover, the term "paid canvasser" first appeared in both of these statutes through Act 1413 of 2013, so the term is "presumed to bear the same meaning throughout" the act.
Thus, like under § 7-9-601, employees who solicit signatures as part of their job duties are considered "paid canvassers" under § 7-9-109.
Deputy Attorney General Noah P. Watson prepared this opinion, which I hereby approve.
Sincerely,
TIM GRIFFIN
Attorney General