LEGAL BUT: Laurie Rushing won a lawsuit challenging her residency but had to admit she voted under false pretenses of where she lived.

Republican state Rep. Laurie Rushing fended off a lawsuit challenging her residency Friday, but in the process had to admit she’d filed for office and voted using a false voter address.

We’d reported the lawsuit earlier.  It was tried Friday in Malvern and dismissed by Judge Chris Williams after Rushing testified that she shared a residence with her mother on Dellmere Drive and had included that address on tax returns and other forms. She had been listing a house on Cannon Ridge in Hot Springs, but she hadn’t lived there at least since Jan. 1, 2017, when she and her husband separated.

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That false address continued on her voting registration (which she updated Thursday after the suit was filed) and on her driver’s license. She presented that ID to vote this year. In theory, poll workers are supposed to ask voters for their name, date of birth and address. Rushing nonetheless voted Oct. 22, despite the state’s strict voter ID law and despite a false address on her ID.

I presume Rushing voted in favor of a proposal to make the voter ID requirement part of the Constitution. It’s necessary to prevent voter fraud, Republicans keep telling us.

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Democrat Alan Hughes is challenging Rushing, who has other legal problems. He has not been accused of faking his residency.

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