JONESBORO — Craighead County election officials are closely watching a Pulaski County lawsuit regarding Arkansas' voter identification law.
The law was passed last year over Gov. Mike Beebe's veto. It allows in-person voters who don't show identification at the time of voting until Monday after the election to present proper IDs to the election commission to have their votes counted. But it makes no mention of a similar grace period for absentee voters.
The issue first arose in a January Craighead County special election when several absentee ballots were submitted without proper voter IDs. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued an opinion saying the ballots should not be counted—then the state Board of Election Board created a rule allowing the grace period.
The lawsuit challenges the state Election Board's rule.