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Arkansas judge won’t stay ruling striking down 4 voting laws

Michael Hibblen
/
KUAR News
Voters at a Little Rock polling location on Nov. 6, 2018.

An Arkansas judge said Tuesday that he will not stay his decision that struck down as unconstitutional four new voting laws approved by the Republican-led Legislature last year.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen denied Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s motion for a stay of his permanent injunction earlier this month against the laws the Legislature approved last year.

Rutledge had asked for the stay while she appealed Griffen’s injunction.

The measures struck down include a change to the state’s voter ID law that removed the option for voters to sign an affidavit affirming their identities if they could not present photo identification at the polls.

The other blocked measures prevent anyone other than voters from being within 100 feet of a polling place, require an absentee voter’s signature on a ballot to match the signature on their voter registration application and move up the deadline for voters to return absentee ballots in person.

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