The State Board of Election Commissioners approved a rule Monday that bars election officials from accepting voter registration forms signed with an electronic signature.

The rule was approved without any audible opposition from the seven-member board and will next go before the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Administrative Rules subcommittee Aug. 22.

Under the rule, voters would have to sign registration forms with a pen, also known as a “wet signature.”

Opponents of the measure have criticized it as undemocratic, arguing it would hinder Arkansans’ ability to vote. In June, nonprofit organization Get Loud Arkansas filed a lawsuit against the state in federal court, saying the ban on electronic signatures on voter registration forms violates portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The organization filed an injunction Thursday in the case seeking to bar the election officials from enforcing an emergency version of the rule that is already in place and is set to expire Sept. 1.

Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, has said the rule is meant to provide clarity to Arkansas’ 75 county clerks to help them to follow a single policy. In previous elections, some county clerks have accepted electronically signed voter registration applications while others have not, he said. According to Madison, Amendment 51 of the Constitution, which established the state’s voter registration system, allows only certain state agencies — the Office of Driver Services and public assistance and state-funded disability programs — to accept electronic signatures.

Monday’s vote follows a 30-day public comment period that began June 14 and ended Sunday. The board was required to receive public comment as part of the process to make permanent an emergency version of the rule, which was approved by lawmakers in early May.

In a packed conference room during Thursday’s public hearing, the 16 speakers who commented on the proposed voter rule all spoke against the measure. The state Board of Election Commissioners said in a memo dated Monday to Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston that the body received more than 200 written comments on the measure, although an accompanying table summarizing the feedback lists only 194 comments. Of those, 186 were against the rule, while eight wrote in its favor.

The memo includes responses to several recurring arguments made in the comments, which were separated into five categories: in favor of online-voter registration systems; wet signature is outdated; e-signature is allowed by law; low voter registration and turn-out rates; and “other.” The last category includes access to voter registration for voters with disabilities; access to printing facilities or postal services; confusion for officials; and that the rule is disenfranchising voters.

Many commenters who expressed favor of online-voter registration systems said that 42 other states permit online registration.

Members of the public who said electronic signatures are allowed by law also argued that, if electronic signatures are allowed on important individual transactions — such as taxes and contracts — they should be permissible when registering to vote. The board said in its response that the secretary of state’s office does not have the authority to create an online registration system and that, while bills proposed during the 2021 and 2023 legislative sessions would have given the authority to do so, both failed before they could become law.

With regard to opponents’ claims the rule would disenfranchise voters, the board reiterated its statement that current law doesn’t allow for the creation of an online voter registration process, and “a third-party organization operating outside the governmental system cannot circumvent the law to create its own online voter registration system.”

INJUNCTION MOTION

Get Loud Arkansas, along with other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Secretary of State John Thurston and members of the State Board of Election Commissioners, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction Thursday to prevent the defendants from enforcing the emergency rule requiring wet signatures. The group also seeks to block the state from enforcing “any requirement” that similarly demands voter registration applications be signed with a wet signature. As in their initial complaint, plaintiffs state the requirement violates portions of the Civil Rights Act.

In addition to Get Loud Arkansas, plaintiffs include Vote.org, a group seeking to increase voter registration nationwide, and two Arkansans who had their registration rejected under the emergency rule scrutinizing signatures: Nikki Pastor and Blake Loper.

A 34-page brief filed in support of the injunction makes four primary arguments against the wet signature requirement. The brief states the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “prohibits state officials from rejecting voter registration applications for errors that are immaterial in determining a person’s qualifications to vote,” that “plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the wet signature rule violates the materiality provision of the Civil Rights Act, that “(a)bsent relief, Plaintiffs will face continued and ongoing irreparable harm because of the wet signature rule” and that “the remaining equitable factors strongly favor granting a preliminary injunction.”

The emergency rule came after Get Loud Arkansas helped register voters with electronic signatures. Volunteers with the group created an online tool that allows Arkansans to fill out a voter registration application online and sign electronically, according to the complaint filed in the lawsuit. The volunteers would then print the finished forms with the registrant’s permission and submit them to county clerks.

In a letter sent to county clerks in February, however, Secretary of State John Thurston advised against the use of electronic signatures, saying, “I strongly recommend that counties do not accept voter registration applications executed by electronic signature.” The lawsuit alleges that Thurston’s letter came in direct response to a Feb. 26 Arkansas Times article about the success of the group’s voter registration drive.

The lawsuit is ongoing.

Speaking after Monday’s board meeting, Madison defended the emergency rule and the proposed permanent version, citing its use in confirming the identity of a purported voter. He cited a case in south Arkansas in which a man forged roughly 140 absentee ballot applications, voter registration forms and other statements for the 2022 primary election.

“When he got caught, it was the signatures,” Madison said.