Secretary of State Mark Martin’s office plans to reach out to voters through radio and public agencies in the next few months to inform them of a new state law requiring voters to show photo identification to vote, his spokesman told lawmakers Tuesday.
Act 595 of 2013, sponsored by Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, does not require the secretary of state to educate voters about the new requirement, but Martin’s spokesman Alex Reed said the office plans to use funds originally intended for equipment to spread the word.
Act 595 will go into effect as early as Jan. 1 if the secretary of state’s office has funding to make ID cards available to any voter who needs one. Under current state law, poll workers ask for identifying documents, but voters are not required to show them.
On Tuesday, Martin signed a $114,975 contract with AAMSCO Identification Products Inc. of Little Rock to purchase 98 “voter ID badge systems” that can take photos and produce identification cards.
Because Martin had planned to to use as much as$300,000 in existing office funds to purchase equipment for the state’s 75 county clerks to make the cards, Reed said some of the remaining $185,025 may go toward advertising on television and in newspapers.
“We are looking at billboards, digital ads, we’re also looking at town halls and state tours and things of that nature,” he said.
The contract includes training, software, color printers, cameras and at least 200 blank cards for each of the 98 units. There may be additional costs for an extended warranty on the machines, Reed said.
Each unit costs $1,173, according to the contract. They will be delivered to the secretary of state between Sept. 23 and Nov. 1.
Earlier Tuesday, the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee reviewed and raised no objections to rules to help the secretary of state implement the new law. The rules next go before the Legislative Council for consideration.
During the 2013 session, lawmakers clashed over whether to require photo identification at the polls. Gov. Mike Beebe vetoed the measure, but Republicans overrode his veto.
The less-than-10-minute discussion about the new rules Tuesday was much calmer, with questions from two Democrats concerned that voters wouldn’t learn of their new obligation.
Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, said that the secretary of state will have to go to where voters are. Some Democrats said during the legislative session that the photo identification requirement placed a burden on the poor and the elderly.
“Some people listen to a particular kind of radio. Some people might better get their information at church, or some maybe at a barbershop,” Elliott said.
Elliott suggested having schools send notes home with students informing parents of the new voting requirement.
“That’s certainly a way, and if we don’t drop something at barbershops and beauty shops,we have missed a whole lot of people,” Elliott said.
Martin spokesman Kerry Baldwin said the secretary of state is creating informational materials to notify voters and will reach out through state revenue offices, the Department of Human Services, local shelters and churches.
Baldwin said the secretary will ask every radio station across the state to run public service announcements in English and Spanish.
Martin has also been invited to hold a workshop at the state NAACP convention in Little Rock on Sept. 14, Baldwin said.
“There are many things that we are going [to do] and we will continue to do it in the weeks and months and months ahead,” she said.
In addition to the county-clerk-issued identification cards, the new law says the following photo IDs are acceptable at the polls: driver’s license, concealed-carry handgun license; U.S. passport; employee badge or identification document; military ID, student ID from an accredited Arkansas post-secondary institution, and public-assistance ID card.
If an ID card has an expiration date, it is valid if it “is not expired or expired no more than four (4) years before the date of the election in which the person seeks to vote,” the law states. Also, county clerks do not have to issue ID cards to voters who have an alternative form of identification, and those seeking an ID card must affirm they do not have another form of ID.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 08/21/2013