Flawed voter rolls affect more than 1,000 in Pulaski County

LITTLE ROCK—Officials say over 1,000 people in Pulaski County were affected by flawed voter registration data received by the Arkansas secretary of state’s office.

The state flagged 1,730 names in the county for removal from voter rolls due to felony convictions as required under state law, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. But the county clerk’s office later determined that 65 percent of those names were flagged erroneously.

The secretary of state’s office had worked with the Arkansas Crime Information Center to remove voters from the rolls. About 4,000 people in the state who’ve never been convicted of a felony were included on the list. Some people who’ve been convicted of felonies and legally regained the right to vote were also incorrectly flagged.

More than a week after county clerks received the updated list, the state told officials that the data was potentially incorrect. The secretary of state’s office later sent a letter saying county clerks should have conducted independent investigations before removing people from voter rolls.

Pulaski County clerk Larry Crane and 14 employees spent about 10 weeks going through the data to determine who should actually be removed from the rolls. Crane said the state has not offered assistance.

“They did not give any indication that they were willing to attempt to undo what they had done, or to work with anyone to get that done,” Crane said.

Jason Kennedy, assistant chief deputy of the clerk’s office, said “it hijacked our summer, and a lot of the preparations we were trying to get done for November got shelved.”