ACLU: Arkansas Disenfranchised Thousands of Voters

The ACLU of Arkansas sent the Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin an official notice on October 31, claiming that his office violated the National Voter Registration Act by purging 7,000 eligible state residents from voter rolls due to “erroneous data” provided by the Arkansas Crime Information Center.

“The Secretary has not provided the county clerks or county boards of election commissioners with updated, accurate information, regarding these flagged voters nor has your office taken steps to ensure a statewide restoration of voters wrongfully removed,” reads the letter, according to KATV. “Thus, eligible Arkansas voters’ rights remain in jeopardy.”

Voters learned in late July that, due to a bureaucratic error, roughly 4,000 of the 7,000 individuals were mistakenly flagged as felons and potentially purged from voter rolls despite having never been convicted of a felony, reports the Arkansas Times. Some others were former felons who are again eligible to vote.

The ACLU letter has asked Martin’s office to stop using the flawed data that they said is resulting in “disenfranchisement” of eligible voters, restore eligible voters to the rolls as soon as possible so that their voters are counted, and produce records and publicly disclose all relevant information, notes KATV. According to the letter, the officer did not “adequately notify or assist county clerks and local election commissioners” when the issue first came up.

“If you cannot vote in this year’s historic Presidential election because of the Secretary of State’s errors, you will lose a right that can never be restored, because you will never be able to vote in this election again,” said Arkansas ACLU Executive Director Rita Sklar, according to the Arkansas Times. “Adding insult to injury, the Secretary of State’s office has not notified the flagged voters and has refused to identify these voters so others can help them get their vote back.”

Sources: KATV, Arkansas Times (2) / Photo Credit: Mark Martin/Twitter