Constitution of Arkansas (2025 publisher edition) — Amendment 6: EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT AND OFFICERS (CONST.,

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its preamble, twenty original articles, schedule and 104 published amendments, including annotations and explicit repealed notices. Repealed notices remain historical publisher context.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 6

AMEND. 6. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT AND OFFICERS (CONST.,
ART. 6, § 1, AMENDED AND SECTIONS ADDED) .
Publisher’s Notes. The enacting clause of the resolu-
tion proposing this amendment read: “That section No. 17
of article 5 of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas be
amended to read as follows:
“Executive Department
“Section 1. To amend section 1 of article 6 of the
Constitution of the State of Arkansas to read as follows:
* * *.”
The amendment then proceeds to amend Art. 6, § 1, and
to add five additional sections.
This amendment was submitted by the General Assem-
bly (see Acts 1913, p. 1527) and voted upon at the general
election, September 14, 1914, with returns as follows: for,
46,567; against, 45,206. It was declared to be in force in
Combs v. Gray, 170 Ark. 956, 281 S.W. 918 (1926). See also
Brickhouse v. Hill, 167 Ark. 513, 268 S.W. 865 (1925).
Effective Dates.
Ark. Const. Amend. 6, § 7: second Monday in September,
1915.
§ 1. Executive department.
Publisher’s Notes. This section amended Ark. Const.,
Art. 6, § 1, and is incorporated therein.
This section was probably superseded by Ark. Const.
Amend. 37, § 1, which was repealed by Ark. Const. Amend.
662 Amend. 1 CONSTITUTION OF ARKANSAS

-- 675 of 883 --

56, § 5, and replaced by § 1 of that amendment. However,
Ark. Const. Amend. 56, § 1, has probably been superseded
by Ark. Const. Amend. 63, § 1.
§ 2. Executive power vested in Governor and Lieutenant Governor.
The executive power shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold office for two years; a
Lieutenant Governor shall be chosen at the same time and for the same term. The Governor and
Lieutenant Governor elected next preceding the time when this section shall take effect shall
hold office until and including the second Monday of September, and their successors shall be
chosen at the general election in that year.
Publisher’s Notes. This section has probably been
superseded by Ark. Const. Amend. 63 as to terms of office.
See also Ark. Const., Art. 6, § 2, as to power of Governor.
§ 3. Election of Governor and Lieutenant Governor.
The Governor and Lieutenant Governor shall be elected at the times and places of choosing
members of the Assembly. The persons respectively having the highest number of votes for
Governor and Lieutenant Governor shall be elected, but in case two or more shall have an equal
and the highest number of votes for Governor, or for Lieutenant Governor, the two houses of the
Legislature at its next annual session shall forthwith, by joint ballot, choose one of the said
persons so having an equal and the highest number of votes for Governor or Lieutenant Governor.
Publisher’s Notes. In connection with this section, see
Ark. Const., Art. 6, § 3.
§ 4. Lieutenant Governor acting as Governor.
In case of the impeachment of the Governor, or his or her removal from office, death, inability
to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, or resignation, the powers and duties of the
office, shall devolve upon the Lieutenant Governor for the residue of the term, or until the
disability shall cease. When the Governor shall, with the consent of the Legislature, be out of the
State, in time of war, at the head of a military force thereof, he or she shall continue
commander-in-chief of all the military force of the State. [As amended by Const. Amend. 96.]
Publisher’s Notes. This section probably supersedes
Ark. Const., Art. 6, § 12, in its entirety and may supersede
§ 14 of that article in part.
Ark. Const. Amend. 96, which amended this section, was
proposed by S.J.R. 3 during the 2015 Regular Session and
adopted at the November 2016 general election by a vote of
777,973 for and 296,291 against. The amendment deleted
“or absence from the State” following “resignation” in the
first sentence and made stylistic changes. The amendment
was effective thirty days after the election pursuant to
§ 7-9-119.
§ 5. Qualifications and duties of Lieutenant Governor — Succession to the governor-
ship.
The Lieutenant Governor shall possess the same qualifications of eligibility for the office as the
Governor. He shall be President of the Senate, but shall have only a casting vote therein in case
of a tie vote. If during a vacancy of the office of Governor, the Lieutenant Governor shall be
impeached, displaced, resign, die, or become incapable of performing the duties of his office or be
absent from the State, the President of the Senate shall act as Governor until the vacancy be
filled or the disability shall cease; and if the President of the Senate for any of the above causes
shall become incapable of performing the duties pertaining to the office of Governor, the Speaker
of the Assembly shall act as Governor until the vacancy be filled or the disability shall cease.
Publisher’s Notes. The third sentence of this section
probably supersedes Ark. Const., Art. 6, § 13, in its en-
tirety and may supersede § 14 of that article in part.
663 Amend. 6, § 5 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

-- 676 of 883 --

§ 6. [Repealed.]
Publisher’s Notes. Ark. Const. Amend. 94, which re-
pealed this section effective November 5, 2014, was pro-
posed by H.J.R. 1009 during the 2013 Regular Session and
adopted at the November 2014 general election by a vote of
428,206 for and 388,459 against.
Before repeal, this section read:
“ § 6. Salary of Lieutenant Governor.
“The Lieutenant Governor shall receive for his services
an annual salary of two thousand dollars, and shall not
receive or be entitled to any other compensation, fee or
perquisite, for any duty or service he may be required to
perform by the Constitution or by law.”
This section was held to be superseded by Ark. Const.
Amend. 56, § 2 [repealed], in Berry v. Gordon, 237 Ark.
547, 376 S.W.2d 279 (1964).
For current provision concerning salary of the Lieuten-
ant Governor, see Ark. Const., Art. 19, § 31.