Arkansas attorney general candidate Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, is firing back at her county clerk for what she calls an “illegal cancellation” of her voter registration.
Last Tuesday, Rutledge was informed by Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane that her voter registration was cancelled because he discovered she was still registered to vote in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Crane defended his decision last Wednesday to the Washington Examiner, saying Rutledge had only filled out a change-of-address form when she registered to vote and not the proper form she needed as someone who moved to the country from another state.
Rutledge claims in an email to the press that she followed the clerk’s office’s instructions when she registered to vote in Pulaski County in March 2013. She said in a letter sent to Crane on Thursday that she told a staffer at the clerk’s office she wanted to change her voter registration from Virginia to Pulaski County.
“Your office informed me that I was already on the voter roll in Pulaski County listed under a previously held address in Little Rock and refused to accept my registration application,” Rutledge wrote to Crane. “After I explained several times that I was moving from Virginia back to Little Rock and that I did not live at the address on file, the staff member insisted that I complete the change of address form.”
Rutledge added: “I was assured by your office that this was the proper procedure and the proper form to ensure that I would be legally registered to vote.”
Rutledge reminded Crane that she has voted in four elections since she received her voter registration card last March and that each of those votes were certified.
The day after sending that letter to Crane and being denied, Rutledge registered to vote in Pulaski County a second time, this time filling out the form for out-of-state registrants. Rutledge even added “second attempt” in parentheses next to her check for “new registration.”
Crane’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
