LITTLE ROCK — Write-in candidates would be required to meet a 90-day deadline to notify state and local election officials that they are running, under a bill approved by an Arkansas House committee.
Proposed as a minor technical change, the bill instead caused several lawmakers Wednesday to question why write-in candidates had any restrictions at all.
Write-in candidates must already notify every county in which they're running and file other paperwork in order for their votes to be counted. County clerks are not required to include ballot lines for write-in candidates without the filings.
But Republican Rep. Jack Ladyman said he thought write-ins were "for me, the Arkansas voter, to write in anyone I wanted to."
The measure ultimately passed by voice vote and now goes to the full House.
