Constitution of Arkansas (2025 publisher edition) — Amendment 29: FILLING VACANCIES IN OFFICE

Publisher edition notice: This collection preserves the complete constitutional appendix of the Secretary of State’s 2025 Election Laws and Constitution compilation: its preamble, twenty original articles, schedule and 104 published amendments, including annotations and explicit repealed notices. Repealed notices remain historical publisher context. Later amendments have not been independently verified.

Amendment 29

AMEND. 29. FILLING VACANCIES IN OFFICE
Publisher’s Notes. This amendment was proposed by
initiative petition and approved at the general election on
Nov. 8, 1938, by a vote of 63,414 for and 56,947 against.
§ 1. Elective offices — Exceptions.
Vacancies in the office of United States Senator, and in all elective state, district, circuit, county,
and township offices except those of Lieutenant Governor, Member of the General Assembly and
Representative in the Congress of the United States, shall be filled by appointment by the
Governor.
§ 2. Ineligible persons — Nepotism.
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Acting Governor shall be ineligible for appointment to
fill any vacancies occurring or any office or position created, and resignation shall not remove
such ineligibility. Husbands and wives of such officers, and relatives of such officers, or of their
husbands and wives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, shall likewise be
ineligible. No person appointed under Section 1 shall be eligible for appointment or election to
succeed himself.
669 Amend. 29, § 2 FILLING VACANCIES IN OFFICE

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§ 3. Violation of amendment — Compensation withheld.
No person holding office contrary to this amendment shall be paid any compensation for his
services. Any warrant, voucher or evidence of indebtedness issued in payment for such services
shall be void.
§ 4. Duration of term of appointee — Election to fill vacancy.
The appointee shall serve during the entire unexpired term in the office in which the vacancy
occurs if such office would in regular course be filled at the next General Election if no vacancy
had occurred. If such office would not in regular course be filled at such next general election the
vacancy shall be filled as follows: At the next General Election, if the vacancy occurs four months
or more prior thereto, and at the second General Election after the vacancy occurs if the vacancy
occurs less than four months before the next General Election after it occurs. The person so
elected shall take office on the 1st day of January following his election.
§ 5. Election to fill — Placing names on ballots.
Only the names of candidates for office nominated by an organized political party at a
convention of delegates, or by a majority of all the votes cast for candidates for the office in a
primary election, or by petition of electors as provided by law, shall be placed on the ballots in any
election.