The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union renewed a call for information about people removed from voter rolls earlier this year and demanded Secretary of State Mark Martin make sure none of those mistakenly removed are turned away at the polls.
The ACLU’s letter was in regard to Martin’s office sending county officials flawed data marking some voters as felons. The list of names, which was sent by Martin’s office to all 75 county clerks in June, contained 7,730 registered voters who were flagged as felons in data from the Arkansas Crime Information Center.
About 4,000 of the flagged voters had never been convicted of a felony.
County clerks also reported the list included the names of felons who have had their voting rights restored. Brad Cazort, the repository administrator for the Arkansas Crime Information Center, said it doesn’t track of felons who have had their voting rights restored.
The state is in its second week of early voting before Tuesday’s election.
In an attempt to determine voters who may have been mistakenly flagged, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Martin’s office Aug. 3 seeking records to show who was flagged and why.
According to the ACLU’s letter sent to Martin on Tuesday, his office responded with records showing how the office received the faulty data and what instructions were given to county clerks. But Martin’s office didn’t provide a list of affected voters despite several requests for one, the ACLU letter said.
According to Holly Dickson, the ACLU attorney who wrote the letter, Martin’s handling of the flawed data and refusal to provide more information about the voter rolls is a violation of both the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
The letter demands Martin’s office stop sharing flawed felon data, and also restore the registration of anyone erroneously removed from the rolls and produce the requested list of voters. If the office doesn’t respond, Dickson said, the group could file a federal lawsuit.
“This is our official notice to the secretary of state to clean up his act,” Dickson said Wednesday, adding the ACLU hasn’t received a response.