‘Might’ Is Not Justification To Enact New Voter Laws

The liberal lion of the Pulaski County Circuit Court system, Judge Wendell Griffen, has once again hit upon a “common sense” theme in his most recent high-profile ruling.

After a four- day bench trial of a quartet of the changes to Arkansas’ voting laws made by the General Assembly last spring, Griffen issued a permanent stay — or outright prohibition – to these laws being enacted.

The lawsuit, it should be pointed out, was brought by the League of Women Voters in Arkansas, at the urging of not only local league members but groups of voting rights advocates across the United States.

On the state’s side, asking these laws be not only upheld in their intent and purpose, but to be unfettered to be implemented, is Arkansas’s attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, Secretary of State John Thurston and the State Board of Elections.

Now, it seems, the case, decided at the Circuit Court level, will go to the Arkansas State Supreme Court for a decision of Judge Griffen’s ruling.

A gutsy move, perhaps by both Rutledge and Thurston, because both will have their names on the ballots in May and possibly in November elections. And two of the seven justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court are also on the upcoming ballots.

No one can say politics in Arkansas is not high drama when it hits the courtroom.

At issue are four small acts of the General Assembly, new laws, if you will, to change the way ballots may be cast in upcoming elections in the state:

Act 249 requires voters who fill out a provisional ballot to submit photocopies of their IDs by noon on Monday after Election Day for their votes to be counted. Previously, the voter could give and sign a sworn statement when casting their ballots at the polling site, in case they did not have their ID present, and the vote would count.

Act 728 prohibits people from standing within 100 feet of a polling site except to vote or for other lawful purposes. Those opposing this new law say it would hamper such activities as handing out water to those in long lines waiting to vote or to those with small children in tow.

Act 736 was a requirement to have a voter’s signature on an absentee ballot verified by checking the person’s voter registration application. Prior to this law, state law allowed election workers to check multiple signatures for verification.

And Act 973 moved the mail-in ballot deadlines from the Monday before a Tuesday election to the Friday before the Tuesday election.

Those bringing the lawsuit simply say these minor changes in the law deliberately make voting harder and almost impossible for the minority voters, poor voters and voters with certain health problems brought on by advancing age.

Earlier this month, Judge Griffen ordered a permanent injunction of all four laws. Also, he filed an 86- page written opinion on his order.

Griffen said in his bench ruling and in the written order that Arkansas legislators’ fear of voter fraud — yet unproven — could not justify passing laws restricting voting without proof of conduct the laws were purposely passed to address.

In the statewide newspaper, Griffen said, “In the judicial sphere you don’t prove something is illegal just because you’re afraid something might happen. That’s speculation.”

When moving the case to the State Supreme Court, Thurston, as Secretary of State, said the new laws permanently on hold from the judge would cause “election chaos.”

Surely, Secretary of State Thurston is stretching that point a little far himself.

Still, the subject of voting integrity and the integrity of the ballots being cast is a difference of opinion, an opinion that looks like a panel of elected judges will decide for all Arkansans.

Is there really voter fraud going on in Arkansas’ polling places? I won’t disparage the fine people who work the polls with such nonsense. The county Election Commission and its workers are fine, upstanding people who each time ballots are cast, run fair, well conducted elections, as we all have come to expect — no matter how many in elective positions in Little Rock or Washington D.C. think shenanigans are going on at the polls.

— Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. He can be reached via email at maylontrice@yahoo.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.