Brennan Center for Justice

Arkansas currently has the Automated Registration at DMVs component of Voter Registration Modernization in place. Arkansas also has electronic pollbooks in at least one county.

The excerpt below was adapted from an appendix to the 2010 report Voter Registration in a Digital Age.

Background
The Arkansas Office of Driver Services (ODS) began electronically transmitting registration data, including digitized signatures, to local election officials in the mid-1990’s. State election officials began printing and mailing registration data to local offices in 2006 after the state launched its new voter registration database system, though they continued to forward digitized signatures as well. However, after upgrading the statewide registration database in August 2010, officials have now re-established the capacity to make full electronic data transfers.

This automated system will replace the use of paper after the 2010 general election. According to the Office of the Secretary of State, building the automated process into their database system required 235 hours of labor, at a cost of $41,125, over the course of about one year.

Outcomes
According to Public Affairs Coordinator Sandra McGrew, the Secretary of State’s office anticipates that the automated process will prove more reliable than the current system, while also producing cost savings on the handling of paper.

How Automated Motor Vehicle Registration Works in Arkansas
A person doing business at an ODS office is interviewed by an employee who will ask if she would like to register to vote, or to update an existing voter registration. If so, the visitor will be asked a set of questions about her eligibility, with an ODS employee noting her answers electronically. This information, along with a digitized signature and all the data required by election officials, is then sent to state election officials, who will forward the digitized signatures and print and mail the registration data. Once full automation is introduced, the data and signatures will automatically upload into the statewide voter registration database system and be made available to the appropriate county for review.

In the past, Arkansas has considered the following VRM-related legislation:

• Election Day Registration. This bill would allow an eligible citizen to register to vote on Election Day by completing a voter registration application at the precinct in which the citizen resides, providing proof of name of address. (S.B. 761)