FAYETTEVILLE -- An eleventh-and-a half-hour lawsuit seeking to set aside a state law on voter assistance was filed too late and could disrupt an election that is already well underway, according to lawyers with the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office.
Arkansas United and L. Mireya Reith filed the lawsuit in federal court at 11:30 p.m. Monday night, challenging a 2009 state law that limits the number of voters who can be assisted at the polls by any one individual to six. Arkansas United is a non-profit organization that advocates for immigrant populations in the state.
The group, which wants to help voters who are not proficient in English, seeks a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction preventing the state from enforcing what they see as an unlawful restriction that denies eligible voters the assistance of their choice.
The lawsuit contends that state law clashes with federal election law so state and local election officials should permit voters to use any assistors of their choice regardless of how many voters those assistors have previously helped.
The lawsuit names Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston and state election officials as well as local election officials in Benton, Washington and Sebastian Counties.
"Literally minutes before Election Day Plaintiffs brought this action urging this Court to rewrite Arkansas's longstanding voter-privacy laws. These laws, which aim to prevent fraudulent voter influence that masquerades as 'assistance,' have been in effect since 2009," lawyers for Thurston replied Tuesday morning. "Thus, Plaintiffs could have brought their lawsuit over a decade ago. Yet, they did not even file their motion for ex parte relief until around 11:30 p.m. last night--just minutes before Election Day."
Mandating changes while voting is ongoing is likely to disrupt county election processes because the election day polls have already opened and voting is ongoing, according to the response. A last-minute Election Day injunction would create electoral chaos that could have been avoided had Plaintiffs not delayed, according to the response.
As of mid-day Tuesday, there had been no ruling from a judge.
Ron Wood can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWARDW.