Court reinstates Arkansas ban of electronic signatures on voter registration forms

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal appeals court has reinstated an Arkansas rule prohibiting election officials from accepting voter registration forms signed with an electronic signature.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday afternoon issued an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction that a federal judge issued against the rule adopted earlier this year by the State Board of Election Commissioners. An appeal of the preliminary injunction is still pending before the court.

The board in April said Arkansas’ constitution only allows certain state agencies, and not elections officials, to accept electronic signatures. Under the rule, voters will have to register by signing their name with a pen.

The rule was adopted after nonprofit group Get Loud Arkansas helped register voters using electronic signatures. Get Loud said the board’s decision conflicts with a recent attorney general’s opinion that an electronic signature is generally valid under state law. The group filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s decision.

“This rule creates an obstacle that risks disenfranchising eligible voters and disrupting the fundamental process of our elections,” Get Loud said in a statement following the 8th Circuit order. “The preliminary injunction recognized that this irreparable harm must be avoided.”

Chris Madison, director of the state Board of Election Commissioners, told county clerks on Monday that any voter registrations completed before the stay was issued Friday were eligible to have electronic signatures.

Madison asked the clerks to identify any registration applications Saturday or later that used electronic signatures and to make every effort to contact the voter as soon as possible to give them a chance to correct their application.

Madison in April said the rule was needed to create uniformity across the state. Some county clerks had previously accepted electronic signatures and others had not.

The Arkansas rule is among a wave of new voting restrictions in Republican-led states in recent years that critics say disenfranchise voters, particularly in low-income and underserved areas.