Arkansas: Voter ID measure advances in Arkansas State House | Reuters

Arkansas lawmakers, following the lead of other legislators across the country, approved a measure on Wednesday to require voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot. The measure passed on a 51-44 vote in the Republican-controlled state House with support from one Democrat. It now returns to the Senate, which approved a similar measure, for a vote on an amendment. Democratic Governor Mike Beebe has not said whether he would sign the bill into law and have Arkansas join the nearly three dozen states that have similar laws on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Legal challenges to those laws are pending in several states where the measures have passed.

Arkansas: Ozark grappling with second case of botched ballots | Springfield News-Leader

Voters won’t have the chance to decide if a 3/8-cent sales tax is the right way to improve the streets of Ozark. Due to a clerical error, the sales tax proposal that city officials have played up at public meetings and on the city’s official website won’t be part of the April election. “I didn’t get to approve the final ballots, and it was printed without (the tax proposal),” City Clerk Lana Wilson said. The mix-up marks the second botched ballot case in Ozark for this election. Last month, the city filed a lawsuit in circuit court to fix a mistake with a shortened term in Ward III. After a Friday evening board of aldermen vote and a quick fax from County Clerk Kay Brown, an uncontested race made it onto ballots in Ward III, but the sales tax for streets proposal is missing from ballots in all three wards. “When I got the sample ballot, it didn’t have the alderman for Ward III on it, plus it didn’t have the sales tax. I assumed that (Brown) would send me the original to approve,” Wilson said.

Arkansas: Questions over Money Hold Up Voter ID Bill | Arkansas Matters

Photo identification when you go to vote sailed through the Arkansas senate, but it was a much different story on Wednesday as a House of Representatives panel slammed the brakes on the idea. The issue that’s holding it up: money. Legislators want to know how much photo voter i-d will cost the state, and until they get that amount, they won’t vote on the idea. Bill sponsor Bryan King has repeatedly told fellow legislators it would cost around $300,000 to place photo ID machines in 87 county clerks’ offices around the state, but, others believe it will cost much more.

Arkansas: Senate approves voter ID legislation | SFGate

The Arkansas Senate voted Wednesday to require voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot, a requirement that one Democratic lawmaker compared to poll taxes and other past efforts to disenfranchise voters. The Republican-led Senate approved the requirement on a mostly partly-line 23-12 vote, with two Democrats joining the chamber’s 21 Republicans. Past efforts at voter ID legislation have failed in the Legislature under Democratic control, but the idea is expected to have an easier path to Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s desk now that Republicans control both chambers. Beebe has questioned the need for such a requirement, but has not said whether he opposes the bill. Arkansas law currently requires poll workers to ask for identification, but voters are not required to show it.

Arkansas: State Senate Panel Approves Voter ID Bill But Democrats Cry Suppression | Arkansas Business News | ArkansasBusiness.com

Arkansas voters would be required to show photo identification before casting a ballot under legislation advanced by a Senate panel Thursday, but Democrats question the cost of the requirement and whether it’s aimed at suppressing votes. The chamber’s State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee endorsed the voter ID bill on a voice vote, with the three Democrats on the Republican-controlled panel objecting. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week. Arkansas poll workers already are required to ask voters for identification, but voters can still cast a ballot if they don’t show one. Past efforts to require photo ID have failed in the Arkansas Legislature, but Republicans believe they have votes for it now that they control the House and Senate.

Arkansas: State Senator Proposes 2 Voter ID Bills | Arkansas Matters

The battle over voter ID laws has made its way into Arkansas. On Thursday, Senator Bryan King filed two bills requiring identification at the polls. Senator King filed a voter ID bill during the last legislative session in 2011 which passed in the House of Representatives, but got stuck in the Senate. Now King is trying again with two bills.

Arkansas: GOP has edge for Arkansas House seat after 3 recounts | SFGate

The battle for control of the Arkansas House has come down to a recount in Independence County. Recounts Tuesday in Jackson and Poinsett counties left Republican John K. Hutchison with a 45-vote lead over Democrat L.J. Bryant. Poinsett County has as many as 10 provisional and military ballots to consider before certifying results Friday, but by themselves they cannot overturn last week’s election results. Independence County election officials will recount votes Thursday. Craighead County verified its totals Friday without making a change.

Arkansas: State Legislator guilty of election fraud | City Wire

State Rep. Hudson Hallum (D-Marion) today resigned his House seat and withdrew as a candidate in the 2012 election after entering a guilty plea on a federal charge related to his 2011 special election. Hudson, 29, was mired in some controversy after winning a high number of absentee ballots in his 2011 special election race. In February 2012, Talk Business blogger Jason Tolbert reported that the FBI had subpoenaed election officials from Crittenden County to appear before a grand jury. At the time, Hallum said he had no knowledge of the investigation. Hallum’s resignation from the House District 54 seat coincided with an appearance today in U.S. District Court where he entered a plea of guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit election fraud. His father, Kent Hallum, West Memphis City Council member Phillip Carter, and Crittenden County quorum court member Sam Malone also plead guilty to charges.

Arkansas: Study recommends changes in secretary of state’s office | Arkansas News

Bolstering the election’s division staff and considering the privatization of the State Capitol Police force are among recommendations in a report released Tuesday on making the secretary of state’s office more efficient. The 26-page report concluded an eight-month review of the secretary of state’s office by a 10-member committee chaired by former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Curtis Coleman. First-term GOP Secretary of State Mark Martin requested the report. “The committee was taking an almost a-political, almost antiseptic, business-oriented look at the structure,” Coleman said Tuesday. “The committee was looking for what … will help make the secretary of state’s function fundamentally more efficient. How can people get better government for less money?”

Arkansas: Election officials watching absentee ballots | Blytheville Courier News

Concern was expressed in a Thursday meeting of the Mississippi County Election Commission about the high number of absentee ballots being cast in both the recent primary and its resulting runoff, which is currently in the early voting phase. During the primary election, a total of 4,563 votes were cast, over half of them during early voting. Of that total, 231 were absentee ballots. County Clerk Lib Shippen told the commission that as of Monday, the courthouse had processed 200 absentee ballots for the runoff in Osceola alone, and that Blytheville employees had reported inflated numbers as well. As of Friday morning, the Osceola courthouse had processed 275 absentee ballots, and the Blytheville Courthouse had processed 151. Clerk’s office employees report that this number is much higher than it has been in previous elections, and that people are being “hauled” in to request absentee ballots by others.

Arkansas: Faulkner County Election Commission certifies election, deals with voting problems | TheCabin.net

The Faulkner County Election Commission on Tuesday certified results from the preferential primary election held one week earlier, but not before the newest commissioner pleaded for more transparency from the commission and the county clerk’s office. Chris Carnahan of Conway, the commission’s newest member, said he was informed the day after the election that about 500 votes were not initially counted. He later learned that the number was 759. The uncounted votes were discovered after officials dealt with a computer error. The votes were added to candidates’ totals before election results were certified. The 759 votes did not change the outcome of any primary race. “It is troubling that I was not informed about this,” said Carnahan, who served as executive director of the Arkansas Republican Party from 1999-2001. “I think that all three election commissioners should be notified as soon as possible.”

Arkansas: Review finds 759 votes not counted on Election night in Faulkner County | TheCabin.net

Hundreds of votes were not counted during the initial stages of last week’s preferential primary election, possibly because of equipment problems, according to the Faulkner County Election Commission. The commission will meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday to review all final results and certify last Tuesday’s election, which included nonpartisan judicial races. Commissioners also are expected to review election procedures and address any reports of alleged irregularities or software that was utilized. An equipment flaw reportedly resulted in 759 votes not being read off ballots. The votes were ultimately found and tabulated, but election officials said the votes did not affect the outcome of any race that was decided before the lost votes were tabulated.

Arkansas: Court: Voters can cast ballots in public | Arkansas News

Poll workers cannot force voters to cast ballots in private if they choose to vote in the open, the state Supreme Court ruled today. The high court affirmed a Pulaski County Circuit Court ruling that barred election officials from directing voters to tables set up outside voting booths but that said state law does not require poll workers to force anyone to mark ballots within the confines of a booth.

Today’s decision came in an appeal of a lawsuit brought against the Pulaski County Election Commission by Keith Hamaker in July 2010. Hamaker said he witnessed voters seated at a table at a polling place in Little Rock when he went to vote in the 2008 general election. Hamaker’s lawsuit contended the practice he termed “community table voting” violated the public trust. He asked the circuit court to bar the election commission from allowing open voting.

Arkansas: East Arkansas holds special election for House seat | NewsTimes

Voters head to the polls in east Arkansas in a special election for a House seat vacated by a former Harlem Globetrotter.

Voters were expected to cast their ballots Tuesday to choose a new representative in state House district 54 to replace former Rep. Fred Smith. The Democratic lawmaker resigned from his Crittenden County seat in January after he was convicted of felony theft.

Arkansas: Authorities investigating East Arkansas primary, monitors requested | Arkansas News

State police investigators are looking into allegations of voter fraud in the Democratic runoff for a vacant East Arkansas state House seat, and a state panel will decide this week whether to send poll watchers to monitor the special general election to fill the seat later this month.

Democrat Hudson Hallum faces Republican John Geelan — both are from Marion — in the July 12 special election to replace former state Rep. Fred Smith, a Democrat from Crawfordsville who resigned the District 54 House seat after just days in the Legislature in January after he was convicted of felony theft in Chicot County.

Democrat Kim Felker of Crawfordsville contends “there were a lot of irregularities” in the primary runoff she lost to Hallum. 2nd District Prosecutor Scott Ellington confirmed last week he asked state police to investigate Felker’s allegations, including that a man offered to provide absentee votes to her from two West Memphis wards in exchange for money or political favors.