Groups say Arkansas voter files' gaps vexing

Officials with two organizations say they are on different tracks for potential litigation against Secretary of State Mark Martin's office for its responses to their separate requests for information on how some voters were flagged as felons in a statewide database.

But both Chris Burks, general counsel for the state Democratic Party, and Holly Dickson, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, say they share frustration about how Martin's office identified more than 7,000 registered voters as felons based on faulty Arkansas Crime Information Center data.

Burks said he is particularly concerned about how long it took for Martin's office to respond to Burks' Freedom of Information Act request and about components missing in the response. Martin is a Republican.

"The Democratic Party is mindful of what other groups are doing. We applaud those other groups," Burks said. "We're going to stay in our lane as a political party and focus on what we can focus on."

Dickson said she wants the names of people flagged for possible removal from voter rolls. The information wasn't included in a response to her Freedom of Information Act request.

"We're looking for information about what the state is doing to correct this and trying to get a better sense of what has happened and what they are and will be doing so we can determine whether we need to file litigation or not," Dickson said.

The update by the secretary of state's office, which was based on Arkansas Crime Information Center data on felons, occurred June 27. Some of the 7,730 people flagged had regained their right to vote, while others were not actually felons. Pulaski County had the most people flagged -- about 2,000 -- and County Clerk Larry Crane said the county has spent hundreds of hours to determine the voting status of those people.

On July 6, Peyton Murphy, assistant director of elections in Martin's office, said in a letter to county clerks that the data were flawed.

The secretary of state's office is the central agency that keeps the database, and it flags voters who may need to be removed for reasons such as a felony conviction or death. County clerks determine which people need to be struck from voter rolls.

It was the first update in nearly two years. The data had been generated by Arkansas Community Correction, but when a key employee there died, updates lapsed. Martin's office determined that it should request the data from the Arkansas Crime Information Center under Amendment 51 to the state constitution.

In Dickson's request to the secretary of state's office, she sought lists "of voters flagged by ACIC with possible criminal histories and all your records concerning those who may have been inappropriately or mistakenly flagged."

But Chris Powell, a spokesman for the secretary of state, said in a letter to Dickson that the office is prohibited by law from disclosing Arkansas Crime Information Center data. He listed several statutory exemptions.

"I understand that they feel they can't disclose the so-called criminal history," Dickson said. "They can easily redact that out."

She noted the voter rolls are public information and the names of those affected by the voter-ID law -- struck down by the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2014 -- were made public.

"We would like to make sure that the voters who have been affected have been identified and contacted and we've not been able to confirm that as of yet," Dickson said. "Particularly troubling is there is no indication [office staff] have facilitated or undergone their own efforts to contact those voters."

Powell said he did not have a comment for this story. He referred an interview request for Martin to Susan Carter, the state Capitol's scheduler and education manager. She did not respond to a request for comment. Martin has yet to agree to several interview requests from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Burks said the state Democratic Party wants to know the scope of the error and the number of people affected.

"Then we can know what the scope of the remaining problem is," he said.

Burks said Friday that he did not plan to argue in an individual lawsuit that the list of affected voters should be public, but he would challenge Martin's office on the time it took to respond to his Freedom of Information Act request.

According to emails previously provided by the Democratic Party, Burks emailed the records request to Powell, Martin's spokesman, on Aug. 3. On Aug. 8, Powell denied the request.

On Wednesday, a Democratic Party official said the attorney general's office had intervened and the secretary of state's office would comply with the request. The party received the response to its request -- more than 1,000 printed pages -- on Friday.

The Freedom of Information Act states: "If a public record is in active use or storage and, therefore, not available at the time a citizen asks to examine it, the custodian shall certify this fact in writing to the applicant and set a date and hour within three (3) working days at which time the record will be available for the exercise of the right given by this chapter."

In a letter to Burks, Powell also said components of Burks' request were too broad to be fulfilled, but didn't name those components. Burks said his request was specific and the documents identifiable.

Burks said the state Democratic Party had hired the Rose Law Firm of Little Rock to represent him in a potential lawsuit since he had filed the Freedom of Information Act request.

A potential lawsuit would be filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, he said.

"The party is promoting transparency and integrity in the voting process," he said. "We want all of the documents that are public to be public. All of the documents that the secretary of state has the authority to release, he should release."

About 1.7 million people are registered to vote in Arkansas. The general election is Nov. 8, and the last day to register to vote in that election is Oct. 10.

A Section on 08/16/2016

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