Student Voting Guide | Arkansas
Registration
http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us/elections.html (registration form available online)
Voters must register at least 30 days before an election, and mail-in forms must be postmarked by that date.[1] You can register to vote if you will be 18 by the next general election.
Residency
In order to have voting residency in Arkansas, your Arkansas address must be your “domicile,” meaning the fixed place where you live and where you intend to return whenever you are absent.[2]
At Home. You should not have any trouble establishing residency at home if you attend school elsewhere.
At School. If you intend to return to the place you lived before school after you graduate, you probably will not be considered a voting resident of your college community under Arkansas law. Although Arkansas law states that you are presumed to be a resident of the place you lived before you went away to school, a court case from 2002 makes clear that it is unconstitutional to apply different rules to students, so that law should not be applied against you.[3] You should be able to establish residency if you have the intent to establish your domicile in Arkansas when you move there and you do not intend to move back home.
Challenges to Residency. The registrar has the initial power to deny your registration if he or she determines you are not a resident.[4] You will can appeal that denial, within five days of when you are notified of it, to the county board of election commissioners.[5] If they decide you are not a resident, you can appeal their decision to the circuit court for your county, within 30 days of the board’s decision.[6] In addition, your residency can be challenged by other voters in the county to the county prosecutor, who can then file a court case to determine your residency or cancel your registration.[7]
At the polling place, your residency can be challenged by a partisan challenger.[8] Once you are challenged, you will have to vote a provisional ballot.[9] Your provisional ballot will be counted if county officials decide after the election that you were registered and voting in the right precinct.[10]
Identification
NOTE: Many voter identification laws have recently been introduced across the country. Please reference Voter ID Legislation in the States for information about identification requirements that your state may have enacted since this guide's 2010 update.
First-time voters who register by mail whose identifying numbers (either your Arkansas driver’s license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number) have not been verified by the state must provide ID, either by sending a copy of ID with their registration application, by showing it in person at the polls, or by sending a copy with their absentee ballot.[12] (Registering through a voter registration drive counts as registering in person.)[13] If you cannot show ID when voting, you will have to vote by provisional ballot. Your provisional ballot will be counted unless county officials find that there is reason to believe, other than your failure to show ID, that you are not the person who registered.
In addition, all voters are asked to show ID at the polls, but can still vote a regular ballot even if they are not able to show ID.[14]
For both rules, acceptable forms of ID include a current and valid photo ID or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document with the voter’s name and address.[15] Student ID with a photo should be accepted, as should cell phone bills that have your name and address on them.[16] Online printouts of identification documents with your name and address will also be accepted.[17]
Absentee Voting
Students who are unavoidably absent from their polling place on Election Day because they are attending school in another location can vote by absentee ballot.[18] Absentee ballot applications must be received 7 days before the election if sent by mail or fax.[19] Absentee ballots sent by mail must be received by the county clerk’s office by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.[20] Furthermore, Arkansas allows registers to apply for and participate in early voting at a designated site the 15 days before an election.[21]
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, Arkansas has early voting beginning 15 days before an election and ending on the Monday before Election Day.[22] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent.
Last updated in April 2010
[1] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-201(a) (2010).
[2] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-201(b)(2010).
[3] See Copeland v. Priest, No. 4-02-CV-00675 GTE (E.D. Ark. 2003), available at http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/36149res20021025.html (last visited on April 30, 2010).
[4] Ark. Const. Amendment 51, § 9(g).
[5] Ark. Const. Amendment 51, § 9(k).
[6] Ark. Const. Amendment 51, § 9(k).
[7] Ark. Const. Amendment 51, § 11(g).
[8] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-312(2010).
[9] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-312(h)(1).
[10] 108 00 Code of Arkansas Rules & Regulations 009, § 903(B).
[11] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-201(a) (2010).
[12] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-201(d)(1).
[13] 108 00 CARR 009, § 900(h).
[14] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-305(a)(8) (2010).
[15] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-305(a)(8)(A).
[16] See Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-305(a)(8)(A).
[17] Interview with Tim Humphries, Legal Counsel, Office of the Arkansas Secretary of State (July 9, 2008).
[18] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-402(1) (2010).
[19] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-404(a)(2)(A)(ii),(v).
[20] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-411(a)(1)(A) (2010).
[21] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-418(a)(1)(A).
[22] Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-418(a)(1)(A)
