A judge in Pulaski County Circuit Court will hear arguments at 1 p.m. May 2 on whether he should bar election officials from requiring voters to show a photo identification card in the forthcoming elections, at least until a lawsuit challenging the legality of the law requiring photo identification at the ballot box is resolved.
Plaintiffs say the state’s voter-identification law is illegal because the state Legislature exceeded the limits of the state constitution in establishing the picture-ID requirement.
Proponents of the law, passed last year over the veto of Gov. Mike Beebe, say it is an important safeguard for election integrity and does not present a substantial hardship to voters because they can get a free identification card if they don’t otherwise have suitable identification.
Four voters from Pulaski County sued Secretary of State Mark Martin and the state Board of Election Commissioners last week to overturn the law, which has not yet been used in a statewide election. They are asking for a preliminary injunction on the law at next week’s hearing.
To convince the judge to bar enforcement of the identification requirement, the plaintiffs will have to convince him that they are likely to win at trial and that they will suffer “irreparable harm” if he allows the law to remain in place for the May 20 election.
Early voting begins May 5.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/24/2014