"We are hopeful the case will be decided before the start of early voting, and before any more registered voters can be disenfranchised," said Rita Sklar, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas. "One more voter losing his or her vote is one too many."
In April, the ACLU and the Arkansas Public Law Center (APLC) challenged the Arkansas Voter ID law in state court on behalf of four individual voters, asserting that the law added a new qualification to voting over and above the qualifications for voting set by the Arkansas Constitution (press release here). We sought an order preventing the law from going into effect, and the judge agreed: he ruled that the Voter ID law violated voting rights as protected by the Arkansas Constitution. The judge issued that order, but stayed his own ruling because a related case regarding absentee ballots was pending before the Arkansas Supreme Court and early voting was set to start for the primary within a few days. The state immediately appealed the ruling in our case to that Court. We are asking the judge in the lower court to lift the stay before the general election, and are fighting the appeal. With the law in effect during May's primary elections, we saw over a thousand votes by registered voters invalidated due to the voter ID law. Get an educational brochure about the Voter ID Law here.
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Marriage Equality in Arkansas: One Week of Joy
Marriage Equality in Arkansas: A Timeline
Marriage Equality in Arkansas: One Family's Story
2014 Rights of Spring Honorees: Adjoa Aiyetoro is Civil Libertarian of the Year
Letter from the Executive Director: Ferguson is Everytown, U.S.A.
On the Docket: September 2014
In the Spotlight: Scott Raper and Jillian Fisher
In Memorium: Judge John Norman Harkey, FOunding Member of the ACLU of Arkansas