You must vote DEMOCRAT🐴 🔵 for ONE single reason; The GOP make WHITE ONLY COURTS 👨🏼⚖️ for 40+ YEARS
- Thread starter ☑︎#VoteDemocrat
- Start date
PROTECT THE COURTS!!!
Judge strikes down 4 Arkansas voting laws as unconstitutional
Judge strikes down 4 Arkansas voting laws as unconstitutional
Four laws passed by the General Assembly last year affecting voters in Arkansas were struck down Friday.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled that all four of the laws violated the Arkansas Constitution by placing undue burdens on voters.
In granting the permanent injunction, Griffen said legislative fears of voter fraud could not justify passing laws restricting voting in the absence of any proof of conduct the laws were purportedly passed to address.
"In the judicial sphere you don't prove something is illegal just because you're afraid something might happen," Griffen said. "That's speculation."
The four laws at issue are Act 249, involving voter identification; Act 728, regulating campaigning around the polls; Act 736, affecting how ballots are validated; and Act 973, which sets deadlines for mail-in absentee ballots.
Supporters of the Republican-sponsored laws say they strengthen Arkansas’ election integrity and bolster public confidence in the system.
Opponents said the laws deliberately make voting harder — and sometimes impossible — for voters who are poor, members of minority groups, or have certain health problems.
In making his ruling, Griffen said attorneys for the state were unable to produce evidence beyond allegations of voter misconduct.
Arkansas judge finds 4 new voting laws unconstitutional
Arkansas judge finds 4 new voting laws unconstitutional
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - An Arkansas judge on Friday struck down four new voting restrictions passed by Republican lawmakers, finding the measures unconstitutional.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen issued a permanent injunction against the new voting laws at the end of a four-day trial in a challenge brought by the League of Women Voters of Arkansas, Arkansas United and five voters over the restrictions.
The measures struck down include a change to the state’s voter ID law that removes the option for someone to sign an affidavit affirming their identity if they don’t present a photo identification at the polls.
The other measures would prevent anyone other than voters from being within 100 feet of a polling place, require an absentee voter’s signature on a ballot to match the signature on their voter registration application, and move up the deadline for voters to return absentee ballots in person.
Supporters of the restrictions had said they were needed to bolster confidence in Arkansas’ voting system. But in his ruling, Griffen said the state’s concerns about election and integrity “are based entirely on conjecture and speculation.”
Griffen, who ruled from the bench, said he planned to issue a more detailed order later.
The lawsuit argued the restrictions would make it difficult — and in some cases impossible — for voters to exercise their right to vote.
The laws were among a historic number of voting restrictions that advanced in statehouses across the country last year, fueled by former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud in 2020.
Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office said she would review Griffen’s order and determine the next step.
“The Attorney General is committed to fighting for the integrity of elections in the state of Arkansas,” spokeswoman Stephanie Sharp said in a statement.
The measure moving up the deadline for absentee ballots became law without Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s signature — a move governors have taken to raise objections to a bill but not veto them. Hutchinson said he expected Griffen’s ruling would go before the state Supreme Court.
“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.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Do yall not see these people wanting to return to the fukking 50s?!
