LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Pulaski County Election Commission is asking a judge to deny the Arkansas Republican Party’s request to intervene in a lawsuit over the way absentee ballots are handled under the state’s new voter ID law.
The commission on Monday asked a Pulaski County judge to reject the GOP’s effort to help defend the state Board of Election Commissioners for adopting a rule that gives absentee voters additional time to show proof of ID. The Pulaski County Election Commission claimed in a lawsuit earlier this month that the state panel overstepped its bounds with the new rule.
The rule allows voters who did not submit required identification with their absentee ballot to turn in the documents for their vote to be counted by noon Monday following an election. It mirrors an identical “cure period” the law gives to voters who fail to show identification at the polls.
The GOP has argued that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a Democrat, can’t properly defend the board because he issued an opinion that the voter ID law doesn’t allow for the additional time for absentee voters. In Monday’s filing, the Pulaski commission said the GOP failed to demonstrate that McDaniel wouldn’t adequately defend the state and that the party’s intervention would only delay the case.
“Given that the defendant will adequately represent any interests the proposed intervenors may have in the litigation, it would be inappropriate to allow them to intervene permissively, with the delays to the resolution of the case such intervention could entail,” the filing said.
The commission also argued that the state GOP reversed its position from last year, when it told the state board that it could not add to what is specifically required by the voter ID law. The GOP made the comments as the board was weighing its proposed rules to enforce the voter ID law.
“Proposed intervenor now seeks to take a position that is diametrically opposed to the previous position,” the filing said.
The Republican-led Legislature approved the voter ID law last year, overriding a veto by Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has said it plans to ask a state judge to block the law.
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