Voters said not likely to notice changes

Election officials say new legislation mainly impacts them, poll workers

Changes in Arkansas election laws made during the 2023 session of the state Legislature should have little impact on voters, local election officials say.

“I don’t think the voters will notice,” said Kim Dennison, Benton County’s elections director, of the changes. “It’s mainly more work for us. More reports, changes in procedures we have to be aware of. But the average person voting won’t really be affected.”

Jennifer Price, executive director of the Washington County Election Commission,

echoed Dennison’s comments.

“For the voter who goes in to vote in person, they aren’t going to see anything different based on the changes for this election,” Price said.

Price said there were “easily” more than 30 pieces of legislation her office tracked that became law in 2023. The legislative session wasn’t particularly focused on election laws, she said.

“It was a fairly typical session,” Price said. “We know that every two years election laws are going to change. This year the changes won’t affect voters as much as they have in other years. For instance, several sessions ago, the Legislature changed the laws on voter IDs. That was definitely something the voters saw when they went to vote.”

Price said state laws requiring voters to present specific types of identification when they went to the polls to vote were adopted in 2016 and went through a number of court challenges before becoming a settled part of the election process.

“This year, the change that will affect the poll workers is mainly in the chain of custody requirements that we have at least two poll workers transporting election materials and in recording what is being done with them.”

Price did say one piece of legislation voters should be aware of is Act 441, the Voter Registration and Secure Voter Records Act. The act requires people conducting voter registration drives to inform voters they may not be able to deliver the voter registration information to election officials by the deadlines for a given election and that the voter can elect to deliver the voter registration information themselves.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there that can lead people to believe they can register to vote online,”

Price said. “That’s not available in Arkansas. You can access the forms online, but you still have to print them out and return them to the county clerk’s office. People also shouldn’t assume they’re registered just because they signed up in a voter registration drive. You should still go to the secretary 0f state’s office and look on VoterView or check with the county clerk’s office to make sure you are registered.”

Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, was a sponsor or co-sponsor for a number of election law bills in the 2023 session. Lundstrum said many of the bills were meant to be “pro-active” and prevent problems reported in other states, but not necessarily in Arkansas.

“Arkansas has got great election laws,” Lundstrum said. “These bills were mostly about closing some small loopholes that might exist.”

Lundstrum said one bill in particular, Act 444 regarding poll watchers, did address problems she has seen in Arkansas. The act, titled “The Arkansas Poll Watchers Bill of Rights,” establishes training requirements for poll watchers and sets procedures for their activities, including challenges to individual ballots.

“There have been some places in Arkansas where they have not allowed poll watchers access to the election process,” Lundstrum said. “Our elections are meant to be open, with no hidden agendas. I’ve been a poll watcher, and I was glad to see this pass.”

Max Deitchler, the Democratic Party member of the Washington County Election Commission, said some of the new laws could limit voter participation. He pointed to a bill that barred the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots and another that prohibited the delivery of unsolicited absentee ballots to individual voters.

“It’s already hard to comply with the law and vote by absentee ballot in Arkansas elections,” Deitchler said. “The practical effect of this is that fewer people are going to be able to cast absentee ballots.”

Kristin Foster is deputy director of Get Loud Arkansas!, a nonprofit group that focuses on voter registration and turnout in Arkansas elections. Foster said the group monitors proposals to change election laws, but doesn’t lobby or advocate for or against them. She said she would have preferred to see laws focused on increasing voter participation.

“We always want the process to be more accessible, to make it easier for people to vote,” Foster said. “We didn’t see a lot of that in the last session.”

One example she cited was a proposal to allow online voter registration in Arkansas, something she said many other states have successfully implemented.

“That never even made it out of committee,” she said. “We know it’s something people wanted to have in Arkansas. It’s something that would be easy to implement. It has been done in other states, in some states for decades. We know it works.”

“Arkansas has got great election laws. These bills were mostly about closing some small loopholes that might exist.” — Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs