Republicans, concerned that enacting a law will not be enough to require voters to provide photo identifications before casting ballots, are working to refer a constitutional amendment to the voters that would impose the requirements. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, filed Senate Joint Resolution 6 late Wednesday. It followed the House passage Tuesday of a voter-identification bill sponsored by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle. “I don’t think there’s any question that voter fraud’s been going on — despite what the Democrats have denied,” King said. “They’ve stopped, actually, investigations into voter fraud. The system that the Democrats set up in Arkansas was for years, was a rigged system.” H.L. Moody, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said election commissions are now generally controlled by Republicans.
“If there was some massive fraud going on, don’t you think the Republicans would have set their hair on fire by now? I don’t understand this need to make voter ID the answer to voter fraud that no one seems to be able to find actual evidence for,” he said. Voter-identification bills hurt the elderly and minority groups more than other groups, Moody said.
The voter-identification measures — which King and Lowery said are not competing — attempt to address a unanimous Arkansas Supreme Court decision in 2014 that found that a previous voter-identification law violated the state constitution. Four of the seven justices on the court at that time said the law added a qualification to the list of qualifications set out in the state’s constitution.
According to Article 3, Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution, in order to vote, a person needs only to be age 18 or older, a U.S. citizen, an Arkansas resident and properly registered to vote.
Full Article: Filing would put voter-ID amendment before public.