AACFAMILY & FRIENDS
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Logan County Courthouse (Paris, 1873)
Te process for removal begins with a petition circulated by the qualified voters of the county. Whenever 15 percent of the legal voters of any county in this state shall join in a petition to the county court of the county for the change or removal of the county seat, the county court shall order an election to be held at the voting places in the county directing that the proposition of the petitioners for the change or removal shall be submitted to the qualified electors. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-14-303 (1987). Te number of signatures required upon a petition for change of a county seat shall be computed upon the total vote cast for the Office of Governor at the preceding general election. Act 166 of 1923 purported to authorize the removal of a county seat of Woodruff upon the vote of the electors of the county. Te requirement for a county to establish a dual county seat or to remove a county seat is an affirmative majority vote from registered citizens of the county seeking to change its seat. Bonner v. Jackson, 158 Ark. 526 (1923). An act from the General Assembly was held by the Supreme Court under Bonner v. Jackson not to be the means of elimination or removal of a county seat. Please note that temporary county seats are only for new counties, and the location of the county seat is set by the General Assembly in the Act which authorized the formation of the new county. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-14-307(a) (1987). Te temporary location of the county seat in a new county is considered the permanent location until changed under the proper procedure. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-14-307(b) (1987).
COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2016
Logan County Courthouse (Booneville, 1901) Are there really 10 counties with dual county seats in
Arkansas? Do the citizens and county officials in these 10 counties truly know whether their county has two county seats? Currently, 10 counties have split judicial districts. Article 13, § 5 of the Arkansas Constitution authorizes Sebastian County, if it so chooses, to establish two districts and two county seats. See: Robinson v. Greenwood District, Sebastian County Quorum Court, 258 Ark. 798, 799, 528 S.W. 2d 930 (1975). Many of the counties reputed to have dual county seats had their judicial districts split through legislative action between 1875 and 1913. Generally, these acts established new judicial districts. Tere is nothing in our Constitution which prohibits the Legislature from dividing a county into two judicial districts and defining the power and jurisdiction of the courts therein situated. Williams v. Montgomery, 17 S.W.2d 875, 875 (Ark. 1929). Tis notion was seen more recently in Parker v. Crow, 368 S.W.3d 902 (Ark. 2010), with the court ruling Act 74 of 1883 which split the judicial district of Carroll County, was constitutional and has not been superseded by subsequent law. However, do these acts create a new county seat? Or a dual county seat? Or do these acts merely create dual judicial districts and not affect the county seat? Act 74 of 1883 established a Western Judicial District in Carroll County, yet referred to Berryville as the county seat. Act 133 of 1885
See “COUNTY SEATS” on Page 26 >>> 25
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