Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson visits Northwest Arkansas, discusses ballot access

The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to attendees at the inaugural Sunday Dinner event in Columbia, S.C., in this March 27, 2022 file photo. The event was hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party's Black Caucus and was intended to "honor the legacy of Black activism along with whose who carry the torch today." (AP/Meg Kinnard)
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to attendees at the inaugural Sunday Dinner event in Columbia, S.C., in this March 27, 2022 file photo. The event was hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party's Black Caucus and was intended to "honor the legacy of Black activism along with whose who carry the torch today." (AP/Meg Kinnard)

FAYETTEVILLE -- A dinner with civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson turned into an hourslong discussion of ballot access in Arkansas on Wednesday night.

Jackson traveled to Northwest Arkansas to visit the home region of his assistant, Derek Van Voast of Springdale. Jackson called Arkansas fertile ground for change, as he did in an April 3 appearance on the state Capitol steps in Little Rock.

The dinner meeting was with 12 community advocates, staff members of Jackson's RainbowPUSH coalition and supporters at 7 p.m. Wednesday at a Fayetteville restaurant.

Josh Price, Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told Jackson he was particularly concerned about counties reducing the number of polling places, especially in rural areas. Other areas of concern, Price said, are ballots sent in by military personnel serving overseas and problems with signature verification of voters.

He knew of one instance in which a voter lost his right hand in an accident and had his ballot rejected because his signature with his left hand did not match. Far more common cases include signatures by voters with health problems such as Parkinson's disease or strokes, he said.

Amie Glass of Fayetteville said she has a daughter with autism. Glass went with her daughter to vote in the 2000 general election and was told by a poll worker, according to Glass: "She can't vote. She's retarded." Glass insisted and ultimately got a ballot for her then-25-year-old daughter, she told Jackson.

Jennifer Price, election coordinator for Washington County, said her office received no report of such an incident, adding such a statement would clearly have been improper.

"Obviously, if that happened, it would be terribly wrong," Price said. "Multiple poll workers are at each location, and if it had been overheard, I expect it would have been reported to our office."

In a related issue, Jackson said in an interview before the dinner he was aware of the two federal lawsuits against congressional redistricting in Arkansas, in which the state Legislature cut Black voters in eastern Pulaski County out of the 2nd Congressional District and then divided them between the 1st and 4th Districts.

"This is exactly the kind of thing going on all across the South since the U.S. Supreme Court made its ruling in 2013" that states with a history of racial discrimination against Black voters no longer had to get preapproval of redistricting and other election-related changes from the federal government, Jackson said.


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