Judge strikes down four Arkansan voting laws

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A state judge in Arkansas nixed four election laws, ruling on Friday that the laws put an undue burden on voters.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen granted the plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and Arkansas United, a permanent injunction over the measures, which would tighten voting requirements and were enacted last year by the Legislature.

“Court further finds that defendant’s stated concerns about election integrity and insecurity are based entirely on conjecture and speculation. Conjecture and speculation, however plausible, cannot be permitted to supply the place of proof,” Griffen ruled.

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Gov. Asa Hutchinson criticized the decision.

“States should be left with the flexibility to protect the integrity of the ballot box, and the Supreme Court will have the opportunity to review the constitutionality of these laws,” Hutchinson said in a statement following the ruling.

Shortly after the bills were signed into law last year, the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and Arkansas United filed a lawsuit alleging the legislation forced election officials to engage in “arbitrary and error-prone” processes.

The laws in question include Act 249, which adjusted photo identification requirement rules for provisional ballots; Act 736, which declared that people who had more than four absentee ballots should be presumed to be committing fraud; Act 728, which barred unsolicited loitering near polling centers; and Act 973, which shortened the timeline for voters to request absentee ballots.

All four laws were passed last year as part of a set of 25 election laws that Hutchinson signed last year in response to the uproar over the 2020 election.

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Former President Donald Trump chalked up his electoral loss without evidence to widespread voter fraud. Several Republican-controlled states, including Georgia, Florida, and Texas, shored up their election integrity laws in response.

Arkansas is expected to appeal the ruling.

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