State's voter-ID law ruled constitutional

The Arkansas Supreme Court declared the state's voter-identification law constitutional Thursday, upholding the law's requirement that voters present certain forms of photo identification when they appear at the polls in just a few weeks.

The justices, in a 5-2 vote, chose to send a poll worker's challenge of the 2017 law back to a lower court for further deliberations -- along with the instruction that the law, Act 633 of 2017, was not clearly unconstitutional.

The high court's decision comes even as voters in the Nov. 6 election will decide whether to enshrine voter-identification requirements in the Arkansas Constitution through an amendment. The amendment was proposed last year by the Republican-majority Legislature. Early voting in this year's Nov. 6 general election begins Oct. 22.

Republicans have for years sought to require IDs at the polls -- which they argue increases voter security -- while opponents have argued that such laws do little more than disenfranchise elderly, poor and minority-group voters who may lack identification such as driver's licenses.

Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/oct/12/voter-id-law-ruled-constitutional-20181/