As Republicans continue their nationwide effort to enact new voting restrictions despite the total absence of systematic security problems in the last election cycle, advocacy groups including the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and Arkansas United filed a lawsuit this week seeking the overturning of certain new election-related restrictions in Arkansas.
The League of Women Voters of Arkansas and Arkansas United have filed a lawsuit against new voter restrictions in Arkansas, saying they're unconstitutional and will disenfranchise the state's voters. https://t.co/m7vacMuD8X
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 21, 2021
The groups said as follows in their filing:
‘What is certain is that, if left to stand, the challenged provisions will make it harder — and in some cases impossible — for lawful voters to exercise their right to vote.’
As summarized by the Associated Press, the restrictions that are targeted by the new lawsuit “include a change to the state’s voter ID law that removes the ability for someone without identification to cast a ballot if they sign an sworn affidavit.” This change could seemingly eliminate the ability of individuals without the now required documentation to participate in elections. Although Republicans have characterized their reform efforts as about protecting the security of the electoral process, no systematic security problems have been discovered in recent years in U.S. election systems. They’re responding to a problem that does not exist! Now, what are elderly, low-income, and other Arkansas voters who might not have the required identification supposed to do?
Elsewhere in the country, Republicans in states like Georgia and Florida have successfully enacted similarly styled new election restrictions — and in both states, litigation targeting the measures is already pending. In Iowa, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds recently signed a slew of election procedure changes into law including the elimination of an entire hour from in-person voting on Election Day, which has, of course, no relationship to any kind of real-world security problems whatsoever, and the same could be said about new restrictions on providing food and water to voters standing in line at polling places. Republicans around the country are just making it more difficult to vote.
