ARKANSAS, USA — A recently passed emergency rule banning e-signatures on voter registration applications has prompted two organizations to sue the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners and Secretary of State John Thurston, claiming they are using voter suppression tactics.
Get Loud Arkansas (GLA) and vote.org filed the lawsuit in federal court in the Western District of Arkansas on June 5.
Back in April, the State Board of Election Commission unanimously approved the emergency rule prohibiting election officials from accepting voter registration forms with e-signatures.
An Arkansas legislative committee approved the rule in May. Now, the only acceptable signature is a "wet signature," meaning registration forms can only be signed with a pen.
Before this approval, GLA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing voter participation in Arkansas, had been collecting e-signatures to register voters since January.
At one point, "Arkansas's election officials assured GLA this online process was lawful," the lawsuit says.
GLA said once word got out they were "registering hundreds of young and minority voters" through their website, the secretary of state and state election commissioners recommended to begin rejecting applications with e-signatures.
The lawsuit calls the rule change a "meaningless technicality that creates unlawful barriers," and a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
Additionally, GLA claims officials have not clarified whether voters who previously registered electronically will have their registrations canceled due to the new rule, "leaving many currently registered Arkansas voters in limbo."
Two of the other plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit are Arkansans from Washington and Pope counties. According to the lawsuit, the two "qualified Arkansas voters" registered to vote through GLA's online tool, but the applications were rejected due to the defendants' enforcement of the wet-signature rule.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the wet signature rule violates the Civil Rights Act. Furthermore, it asks the court to prevent any election officials from enforcing the rule by disallowing them to reject any application containing an electronic signature.
Chris Powell with the Secretary of State's office provided the following statement:
"We are reviewing the complaint and have no comment at this time."
The voter registration application deadline for the November election is Oct. 6, 2024.
April report:
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