Leslie Rutledge, the GOP candidate for attorney general of Arkansas, is no longer registered to vote in the state, even though she’s had a state-issued voter registration card since 2013.
Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane canceled Rutledge’s voter registration this week after he discovered she was also registered to vote in Washington, D.C., and possibly even Virginia. Rutledge had registered in Pulaski County in 2006 but canceled before registering in Washington in 2008.
Rutledge is listed as an “inactive” voter in D.C.. She complains that it was Crane’s responsibility to notify other jurisdictions of her registration so that they would be canceled.
“Mr. Crane was responsible for notifying prior jurisdictions upon his registration of me as a voter in Pulaski County in accordance with the Arkansas Constitution, Amend. 51, Section 11(b) which states: It shall be the duty of the permanent registrar of each county upon the registration of a person who has been registered previously in another county or state to notify promptly the permanent registrar of such other county or state of the new registration,” Rutledge wrote in a statement about the issue.
“In my case, this was not done,” she added.
Attorney Matt Campbell wrote on his liberal blog Blue Hog Report that the cancellation could disqualify Rutledge from office. Campbell cited Article 19, section 3, of the Arkansas Constitution: “No persons shall be elected to, or appointed to fill a vacancy in, any office who does not possess the qualifications of an elector.”
Campbell notes that “qualifications of an elector” are defined in Article 3, section 1, which states that a person must be “Lawfully registered to vote in the election.”
In response to the accusations, Rutledge tweeted out a photo of her voter registration card, certified by Crane and dated March 8, 2013.
I’ve voted 4 times in the past year in Pulaski Co. Card certifying my voter registration was sent to me in 2013 #arpx pic.twitter.com/tpOvrMlqNT
— Leslie Rutledge (@LeslieRutledge) October 1, 2014
In her official statement about the situation, Rutledge accused Crane of using “desperate, Chicago-style, partisan politics” against her. She claimed that in March 2013, she followed the clerk’s instructions to “legally and properly register.” Rutledge also said she has voted four times since registering in Pulaski County.
“This is a case of big bureaucrat, big government, crooked politics interfering with a basic American right,” Rutledge said. “It’s the reason that Arkansans don’t trust big government and have no faith in government services.”
Crane’s office did not immediately respond to a Washington Examiner inquiry. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, a federal law also known as “Motor Voter,” requires any application for voter registration to be considered as an update to the applicant’s previous registrations. If Rutledge did indeed register again in Arkansas last year, Crane appears to be in violation.
So as long as Rutledge has only voted in Arkansas since she updated her voter registration in 2013, she does not appear to be at fault in this situation.
