AR Times: “Surprising no one, the staunchly conservative Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously upheld four 2021 state laws that make voting in Arkansas less pleasant, less convenient and less likely to count.
In an opinion issued Thursday, the seven-member court overturned former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s 2022 ruling that the four laws at issue hindered the fundamental right to vote and were therefore unconstitutional….
The 2021 laws the state Supreme Court upheld Thursday are:
- Act 973, which shortens the window to turn in absentee ballots, moving the deadline from the Monday before Election Day to the Friday before.
- Act 736, requiring county clerks to compare signatures on absentee ballot applications and voter registrations to make sure they match.
- Act 249, which makes the state’s voter ID law more strict. Previously, voters without identification could still cast a valid ballot as long as they signed an affidavit. Under Act 249, anyone who goes to the polls and votes without the required ID will have to go to the county board of election commissioners or the county clerk by noon of the Monday following the election with photo ID in hand, or their vote will not count.
- Act 728, which blocks anyone at a polling site who’s not there for voting purposes from coming within 100 feet of the door to the site. This law creates distance between voters and those nice people who used to hand out water and snacks when the lines got long.”