In a rare bit of good news, today the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction blocking a state rule that made voter registration more difficult and gave a big win to prospective Arkansas voters. This is great news for Arkansas!
The History
In 2023, Get Loud Arkansas, founded by Sen. Joyce Elliott, developed an online tool that allowed voters to use a digital signature to fill out a voter registration form. Other than allowing fully online voter registration (which would be great!), this is the next best thing. The tool allowed GLA to register hundreds of voters quickly, conveniently, and cheaply. The Arkansas Secretary of State – John Thurston at the time – told GLA that the tool complied with all relevant laws. GLA launched the tool early in 2024.
But then Thurston changed his mind. After just a few weeks, he instructed county clerks to stop taking voter registration forms that used a digital signature. Attorney General Griffin weighed in with a formal opinion saying that digital signatures were acceptable.
But Thurston has been no friend to democracy. He had the State Board of Election Commissioners issue an emergency rule clarifying that only “wet” signatures were acceptable, supposedly to try and combat “voter fraud”. What was the emergency? Too many people registering to vote? Extremists love to trot out “voter fraud” concerns when they have no better ideas and when people they don’t want voting start to pay attention.
The Court’s ruling
Today the Court disagreed with the Board, fortunately, writing that “The Board [of Election Commissioners] cites no evidence to support its claim that a requirement of wet signatures on registration applications is material to preventing voter fraud in Arkansas.”
Despite the ridiculousness of the rule, it went into effect. GLA sued. Last year, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against the rule, saying that GLA was likely to prevail in the case on the merits; the state appealed the case (because of course they did), wasting taxpayer dollars and the AG’s time.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling, and so the rule banning wet signatures remains blocked. The Court wrote: “The Board [of Election Commissioners] cites no evidence to support its claim that a requirement of wet signatures on registration applications is material to preventing voter fraud in Arkansas.”
This is a good ruling, and shout out to Get Loud Arkansas for doing the work.
