State Board of Election Commissioners Director Chris Madison appears before a subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Thursday. (Photo courtesy of Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Arkansas lawmakers gave final approval Friday to two rules that have generated opposition and litigation: one limiting the use of electronic signatures on voter registration forms and one eliminating the gender-neutral “X” marker on driver’s licenses.
The Arkansas Legislative Council’s Administrative Rules Subcommittee approved both rules Thursday.
The driver’s license rule prohibits the use of an “X,” which has been accepted since 2010, to indicate someone’s gender in place of “M” or “F.” It also restricts the use of a blank space as a gender marker.
It was one of several rules Friday that required a vote of the full council, which separated it from the batch of rules approved Thursday at the request of House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock.
Collins said he would vote against a rule that “goes beyond rule-making…and into policymaking.”
“Obviously there’s been a way things have been done by (the finance department) for a long time,” he said. “To change in midstream like this with no change in the law is disruptive to people, hurtful to people, and it just seems like it oversteps what the agency’s authority should be in this case.”
The Department of Finance and Administration initially rescinded the gender-neutral drivers license policy in March. The rule is meant to prevent threats to law enforcement officers’ safety, department officials said.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Patricia James blocked the emergency rule in June in response to a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, but Friday’s vote from lawmakers implements the rule on a permanent basis.
Nearly a dozen Arkansans, many of whom are transgender or nonbinary, urged finance department officials later in June not to reverse the policy because it was not causing any problems or harm.
Voter registration rule
Roughly 200 public comments were submitted to the State Board of Election Commissioners regarding the rule requiring “wet signatures” for voter registration forms, with exceptions for forms completed at certain state agencies, such as the DMV.
Earlier this year, the voter advocacy group Get Loud Arkansas created a popular online voter registration tool that included an electronic signature. That same tool caused the State Board of Election Commissioners to implement an emergency rule prohibiting the digital mark in April.
Get Loud’s form has since been amended to no longer include an electronic signature, but the organization is leading a lawsuit challenging the rule, calling it a tool of voter suppression.
The rule required a declaration of review from council co-chair Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, rather than a vote from the council.
Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, said he disagreed with the rule. He pointed out that electronic signatures are allowed for court documents and bank loans, among other things, and that Arkansas’ voter registration and turnout numbers are consistently low compared to other states.
“I think to prevent voter fraud is a worthy goal that I support, but it also needs to be balanced with a couple of things,” he said. “One of those is evidence, and the other is the goal of making sure that all citizens of Arkansas have the right to vote…If we want to talk about freedom in this state, there’s nothing that’s more vital to freedom than the right to vote.”
The Legislative Council also gave final approval to PEER’s Monday decisions, which included directing $500,000 to the Board of Election Commissioners to pay for representation in the lawsuit since Attorney General Tim Griffin recused himself due to a conflict of interest.
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