The first ballots of Arkansas’ spring primary began their route to military and out-of-the-country voters Friday, as the secretary of state’s office said it was moving forward with its normal electoral tasks absent a judge’s order not to. A lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeks to block the enforcement of Arkansas’ new voter-identification law during the primaries, set to be one of the first elections in which voters will be required to show photo IDs or swear to their identities. Last week, attorneys for Secretary of State Mark Martin’s office wrote a letter to the circuit judge, Alice Gray, reminding her that “the Preferential Primary Election begins on April 6, 2018, with the mandatory delivery of live ballots to military voters out of jurisdiction and overseas citizens voting by absentee ballot.”
Also last week, Martin’s office sought to get the Arkansas Supreme Court involved to hurry the case up, but the justices declined to do so earlier this week.
In a reply to Martin’s office, Gray responded curtly that she was “aware” of the deadlines and planned to issue an order “several days” ahead of Friday.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, no such order had been issued.
Full Article: Lacking ruling from judge on state’s voter-ID law, first ballots for spring primary go out.