Arkansas Supreme Court: Election laws are constitutional
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to block four laws related to absentee ballots, voter identification and polling places. This reverses a 2022 Pulaski County Circuit Court decision striking down all four laws.
The laws at issue are:
Act 736 requires a signature match with a voter’s registration application.
Act 973 moves up the deadline to deliver an absentee ballot in-person from the Monday before Election Day to the Friday before that.
Act 249 eliminates the option to sign an affidavit in order to cast a provisional ballot without a photo ID.
Act 728 bans anyone except voters from being within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling location.
The League of Women Voters of Arkansas filed a complaint after the laws were passed during the 2021 legislative session, arguing that they “violated various provisions of the Arkansas Constitution and would burden lawful, eligible voters in the exercise of their right to vote.”
Secretary of State John Thurston and his co-defendants claimed that the laws “were enacted to advance the compelling governmental interests of protecting the integrity of Arkansas elections by preventing fraudulent voting and to promote public confidence in election security.”
Bonnie Miller, president of the League of Women Voters of Arkansas said after the 2020 election: “Secretary of State John Thurston actually said, ‘We had no problems, our elections had never been better, there were no issues.’ So, it's really odd then rolling into the very next year, during our next legislative session, to have four very restrictive laws passed when there's clearly no problem.”
Miller pointed out what she saw as issues with each of the acts.
Of Act 736, she said, “When somebody signed this form, it could have been 50 years [ago]. Signatures, handwriting, changes. There are many reasons for that to happen.
“Also, the election officials who are quote-unquote ‘matching signatures’ have no training. We know that it's a very error-prone process.”
Of Act 973, which changes the deadline for delivering an absentee ballot, she said “there’s no reason for it.”
“If you miss that Saturday [and] you elected to vote by absentee ballot, you can no longer turn your absentee [ballot in in person]. The only chance you have for your vote to count is to pop that thing in the mail and hope it gets there by election day.”
Act 728 is aimed at “electioneering” outside of polling places, Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a written statement Thursday.
Miller said, though, that it bars even people there to support or accompany individual voters: "This also means that people cannot bring their children with them when they go to vote because that child is not there to vote.
"We obviously saw this as a huge problem, especially for elderly folks who live in rural areas,” she said, and for young, first-time voters who might want support and guidance.
“It used to be that, if you didn't have your identification with you, you could still vote a provisional ballot, sign this affidavit thing, essentially ‘I am who I am,' and it wasn't required that you had to come back the following week to show it for your vote to count,” she said. It’s “very troubling,” she said, that Act 249 did away with that option.
In its opinion, the court wrote that, "because we cannot say there is a clear incompatibility between the Act and theconstitution, it was thus improper for this Act to be struck as unconstitutional."
Griffin said in his statement Thursday that, “Today’s unanimous decision is a total victory for Arkansas voters and the security of our elections moving forward.”
“Acts 249, 728, 736, and 973 of 2021 can continue to be enforced to the benefit of Arkansans.”
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas Supreme Court dismisses voter suit to overturn election laws
