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House Advances Arkansas Voter ID Legislation

3 min read

LITTLE ROCK – A proposal to require Arkansas voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot was narrowly approved by the state House on Wednesday, as lawmakers clashed over the proper threshold needed to pass the measure and other procedural issues.

The Arkansas House passed the measure by a 51-44 vote, sending the bill back to the Senate for final passage. The Senate last month approved the bill on a 23-12 vote but will need to sign off on an amendment before the legislation can go to Gov. Mike Beebe.

Beebe has questioned the need for a voter ID requirement but has not said whether he opposes the bill. Spokesman Matt DeCample said on Wednesday that the governor was reviewing the legal challenges that had been made to similar laws in other states and planned to consult with the attorney general’s office on the issue.

Under current law, Arkansas poll workers must ask for identification, but voters don’t have to show one to cast a ballot.

The bill would require Arkansas to provide free photo IDs to voters who don’t have one, costing the state an estimated $300,000.

Opponents of the voter ID bill argued the proposal would disproportionately burden senior citizens, minorities and poor people. They said there was little or no evidence that people were impersonating voters in order to fraudulently cast a ballot.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has pledged to file a lawsuit to block the measure if it becomes law.

Photo ID laws became priority issues in mostly Republican legislatures and for governors after the 2008 elections, and several other states already have such laws. Arkansas has a Democratic governor, but Republicans in November won control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.

Sen. Bryan King, the bill’s sponsor, said the measure is needed to prevent election fraud and ensure that voters are who they say they are.

“It’s an important step in protecting the integrity of elections,” he said after Wednesday’s vote.

Earlier, opponents of the measure argued unsuccessfully before the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee that the state’s constitution required a two-thirds supermajority for the measure to pass.

Rep. Jim Nickels, D-Sherwood, who initiated the objection, said that the bill would, in effect, change the state’s permanent voter registration system established under Amendment 51 of the Arkansas Constitution. That provision, which was approved by voters in 1964 to eliminate the poll tax, can only be altered by a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of the Legislature.

House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, who made the final decision to require only a simple majority, pointed to court cases in Georgia and Indiana that he said contradict the idea that the photo ID requirement is unconstitutional.

“I don’t think anybody can say, ‘Hey you’re sending out legislation that’s just blatantly unconstitutional,’ when you have two other state Supreme Court decisions that state otherwise,” he told reporters.

Some Democrats also objected to how the bill came to the House floor for a vote. They said the chairwoman of the Rules Committee, Rep. Stephanie Malone, R-Fort Smith, improperly declined to recognize a motion for a roll call vote and that Carter erred in ruling to cut off debate on the House floor.

“We did not follow our procedures and I’m concerned about the integrity of the process,” said Rep. Darrin Williams, D-Little Rock. “I’m not going to say it’s an abuse of process, but whatever the bill is, I think we ought to respect our rules.”

The bill now heads to the Senate to concur on an amendment exempting active duty military personnel from the photo ID requirement when voting by absentee ballot and making other technical changes.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.)

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