Save AR Democracy — Protect AR Voting Rights
April 7 Update:
Thursday at 2pm, three anti-Democracy, anti-voter bills will be heard in Senate State Agencies committee:
HB1715 makes it illegal for a county clerk to mail absentee ballot *applications* to their voters, unsolicited.
SB644 continues an ARLeg trend of transferring elections authority and power to partisan groups, by establishing a legislative committee that will have the power to investigate election complaints. This bill could used to intimidate election officials doing good work on behalf of voters.
SB643 moves the deadline to hand-deliver absentee ballots from the day before Election Day to the Friday before Election Day. This further complicates rules and deadlines for voting, will confuse voters, and lead to legitimate ballots being thrown out, simply because they arrived on the Monday before election day.
Email Action: Email members of Senate State Agencies Committee (or see list below) and ask them to vote NO on anti-democracy bills, HB1715, SB644, and SB643.
Tuesday morning: call Senate line at 501-682-2902, and leave a message for Senator Bledsoe, or Hester, or Davis, asking them to vote no on these bills.
The Anti-Democracy Package of ARLeg Bills chips away at Arkansans right to vote.
Many of them are written to directly curtail the voter engagement actions of specific organizations that support voting rights for everyone. This anti-democracy package is government overreach at its worst.
“Rather than focus on pandemic relief and ensuring everyone can get the COVID vaccine, a handful of politicians are working hard to take Arkansas BACKWARD.
Urge lawmakers to move our state FORWARD — by passing legislation that focuses on making everyday living better, and ensuring every eligible Arkansan has the freedom to vote.”
Read More
The Rise of Legislative Anti-Democracy, by the Brennan Center for Justice: It isn’t just voter suppression. State lawmakers from Arizona to Pennsylvania are trying to thwart any form of democracy that threatens their power.
A History of Voter Suppression in Arkansas from the Arkansas Times
Contact Your AR Lawmakers
Tell them:
Everyone wants Arkansas to be a place where freedom and the right to vote is for everyone, and we all have an equal say.
The current package of anti-democracy bills chips away at the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of Arkansans.
Many of these bills simply pile rules on top of current law, and take away freedoms of Arkansans to simply make voting easier.
The bills disproportionately throw up barriers to the polls for vulnerable Arkansans, including Black & brown Arkansans, rural communities, elderly, people with disabilities, and those with limited transportation.
Please ask your colleagues to instead focus on legislation that supports pandemic relief and recovery for the everyday lives of Arkansans.
Some Lawmakers Are Trying to Take Our State BACKWARD
As national headlines mark the outsized number of voter suppression bills making their way through state legislatures, Arkansas lawmakers are responsible for quite a few of them. From eliminating early voting days to expanding voter photo ID restrictions, a package of anti-voter bills making its way through the state Capitol chips away at the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of Arkansans.
Many of these bills pile unnecessary rules on top of current law, and take away freedoms of Arkansans to simply make voting easier. SB486, for example, criminalizes the act of offering bottles of water to voters in line. HB1715 prohibits a county clerk from sending voters unsolicited absentee ballot applications. SB485 eliminates super-popular Monday before Election Day as an early voting day. The bills disproportionately throw up barriers to the polls for vulnerable Arkansans, including Black & brown Arkansans, rural communities, elderly, people with disabilities, and those with limited transportation.
Go HERE for info on how specific bills harm voting rights, and HERE for a full list of the anti-democracy bill package.
Email or text members of the Senate State Agencies & Govt Affairs Committee
If your Senator sits on this Committee, then it’s especially important for YOU to contact them and urge them to oppose these unAmerican, anti-voter bills:
Chair, Senator Jason Rapert | 501-336-0918 | Jason.Rapert@senate.ar.gov
Vice-Chair, Senator Trent Garner | 870-818-9219 | Trent.Garner@senate.ar.gov
Senator Bob Ballinger | (870) 505-4448 | bob.ballinger@senate.ar.gov
Senator Cecile Bledsoe | 479-636-2115 | Cecile.Bledsoe@senate.ar.gov
Senator Breanne Davis | (479) 970-0081 | breanne.davis@senate.ar.gov
Senator Jane English | 501-257-7670 | jane.english@senate.ar.gov
Senator Bart Hester | 479-531-4176 | bart.hester@senate.ar.gov
Senator Clarke Tucker | (501) 246-4933 | clarke.tucker@senate.ar.gov
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