Striking down the voter ID law

The Arkansas Supreme Court, waiting until almost the last minute, finally affirmed what Gov. Mike Beebe tried to tell the Legislature back in 2013. And that was this: Any tweaking of the fundamental right for a person to cast a ballot in the state of Arkansas is unconstitutional.

Beebe warned the legislature of such when GOP forces were pushing forcefully for what the Republicans called “voting reforms” in 2013. This week, the Arkansas Supreme Court in a unanimous decision, agreed.

Unless this is your first time to vote or you are voting at a new precinct – you do not have to show a photo ID. As a voter you may be asked to say your name and address. That’s it. As it always has been.

Early voting in Arkansas begins Monday (Oct. 20).

The opinion, written by Justice Donald Corbin, was pretty direct. The State Supreme Court held that the 2013 voter ID law was unconstitutional. It wasn’t a difficult question as the high court affirmed Circuit Judge Tim Fox in a rare unanimous decision.

There is no federal question to be addressed, a fact apparently lost to our Secretary of State Mark Martin when speaking through a spokesman after the ruling wanted to carry the fight to the highest court in the land. Not going to happen. Secretary Martin defended the law, pushed by his Republican Party.

But in an opinion written by Justice Donald Corbin, the court said a required photo ID was a new qualification added to the fundamental right of being able to vote. Quoting from the ruling: “Identification is part of the vote registration requirements of the Constitution. The Constitution is clear about voter qualifications: A person must be 18, a U.S. citizen, an Arkansas resident and registered to vote.”

The GOP led ID law added a new requirement of identification each time a person was to cast a ballot. No said the court.

“For 150 years,” Justice Corbin wrote, “…the court has strictly adhered to the voter qualification requirements, from Civil War days to the poll tax of the Faubus era.”

The four qualifications set forth in the Arkansas Constitution do not include any proof-of-identity requirement. The high court ruling said, “With the legislature's passage of Act 595 requiring this additional qualification, we cannot determine any set of circumstances exist under which Act 595 would be valid."

The crux of the law, according to the GOP, would be to eliminate voter fraud and ballot abuse. Democrats said the law would disenfranchise voters.

The court agreed that the new rules would indeed disenfranchise voters. The high court also rejected Martin's argument that ID was validation of the registration process. If that was so, voters would have to requalify for every election.

Associate Justice Courtney Goodson wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justices Karen Baker and Jo Hart, that said the court didn't need to reach the conclusion about the unconstitutionality of adding an additional barrier to voting because the legislature hadn't adopted the change in the Constitutional requirements by the required two-thirds vote. That alone was sufficient to invalidate the law, the three female justices wrote.

Beebe had vetoed the bill during the session. He warned the outcome of a bill to add restrictions to those already set in the state Constitution would be wrong. But the GOP led Legislature overrode his veto, largely on party lines. Again, Beebe groused to the media, the Legislature or anyone that would listen at the time, “…this law would one day be declared unconstitutional.”

Chief Justice Jim Hannah and Justices Cliff Hoofman and Paul Danielson joined Corbin in holding the law added an unconstitutional burden to voting. Even at the last minute, the court issued a rarely used clause – that of an immediate mandate. That means the law is no longer in effect.

The Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners on Friday sent out new and revised instructions to poll workers all across the state. The revision advised poll workers to go back to the way elections were conducted before the GOP push for voter ID.

As a child of the 1950s and seeing how many citizens in our state had to endure cruel hardships to simply cast a ballot in the 1960s, I think our state Supreme Court ruled correctly by reading the Arkansas Constitution. For all the “constitutionalists” out there I hope they understand the difference between a state and federal requirement and a state and federal constitution.

The Arkansas Legislature tried to add an additional requirement to voting in our state to the state Constitution. It was wrong. And this past week the state Supreme Court said so.