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Arkansas: 4-year county terms on ballot

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Free Vulcan:
Arkansas voters will have the opportunity in November to extend the terms of elected officials who conduct many of the day-to-day operations of county government.

Issue No. 1 would extend the length of terms for executive county officials from two to four years, beginning with the 2018 elections. It is the first of seven proposals -- six constitutional amendments and one initiated act -- that will be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Those offices include the county judge -- the chief executive officer in charge of county government -- as well as other positions such as sheriff, assessor, treasurer, coroner, county surveyor, tax collector, circuit clerk and county clerk.

Supporters of the amendment -- most of whom come from the ranks of the affected offices -- point to four-year terms that are the standard length for executives in municipal and state offices in Arkansas, as well as for U.S. president. Previous proposals for longer county terms twice failed, once at the ballot box and once before getting on the ballot. A similar effort to extend the state's constitutional office terms to four years was approved in 1984.

County officers are not limited in the number of terms they can serve, and the proposed law would not change that.

Read more at: http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2016/oct/02/4-year-county-terms-on-state-ballot-201/?news-politics-election-specials-vote

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