The election’s over, but questions linger about how voting was administered. Thanks to advice from the secretary of state’s office, many voters who’d moved from one county or another were improperly required to show an ID. At dozens of polling places, election officials demanded photo IDs though the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that requirement was unconstitutional.
Holly Dickson of the ACLU remains on the case, as does Pulaski Prosecutor Larry Jegley.
Voters who encountered problems at the poll are encourage to provide information:
1-866-OUR-VOTE / 1-866-687-8683
info@866ourvote.org
http://www.acluarkansas.org/Get-help
The law requires voter officials to ask for identification. Identification under the law means name, date or birth and address. Supplying this verbally is sufficient. No form of ID must be produced, except in the case of first-time voters who didn’t provide a photo when they registered.
And think for just a second how hard it would be to mount a vote fraud campaign in which bogus voters had to find and memorize names, birthdates and addresses of legitimate voters (that they also hoped wouldn’t show up at the polls.)
Secretary of State Mark Martin’s office refused throughout election day to explain the procedures or respond to reports of erroneous counsel that local officials claimed came from that office. It said past secretaries of state followed the same practice. Past holders of the office didn’t operate as a defendant under a court ruling that made very clear the constitutional limits on providing additional voter ID. Martin,, an absentee secretary of state who rarely appears in public, will lead the state voter effort for four more years. It made little progress in his first term. He did say election night that the Capitol grounds looked nice