Arkansas - SUPREME COURT SAYS VOTERS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED EXTRA TIME

Associated Press ^ | November 7, 2002

[HAL9000]

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Pulaski County residents were not entitled to an extra 90 minutes of voting this week. The move clears the way for election officials to toss out ballots cast after the official close of the polls.

The Pulaski County attorney's office says officials are currently reading the ruling.

A judge in the Arkansas' most populous county extended poll-closing time from seven-30 p.m. to nine p.m. on Tuesday, citing long lines at some precincts and the absence of ballots at others. The justices said today Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore was wrong to do so.

Republicans accused state Democrats of trying to steal the election by extending voting hours in the predominantly Democratic county -- a key U.S. Senate race was on the ballot -- and the state Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday that the extra hours were illegal.

It was unknown how many votes were cast in the extra 90 minutes. Some of the late ballots were challenged Tuesday night, allowing the local Election Commission to identify some of them.

The commission has not counted the disputed votes and wanted direction from the Supreme Court on what to do with them. The justices in the four-three ruling did not give specific directions in their order, instead reiterating that Arkansas' voting hours are 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. -- except that people in line at 7:30 p.m. can stay in line.

The court said today quote "The legislative branch of our state government has spoken on this issue and there is no provision in our election code authorizing an extension on voting times by the judiciary. Persons who have presented themselves for voting and who are in line at the polling place to do so when the polls close are permitted to vote.

It also wrote in an unsigned order quote "We hold that Judge Kilgore clearly abused his discretion and exceeded his authority in extending the voting hours to nine p.m. in contravention of state law."

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[Robert A Cook PE]

Not true:

They would not immediately intervene (as one lawyer explained it) but DID take the case and will issue "permanent" review/ok-not ok/legal/ilegal status on it later.

That doesn't affect Tuesday's race immediately, but will put a daper on future illegal (not-legistlated) law changes in the future.

[Bommer]

So then whats the punishment. This should be an impeachable offense.

[Humidston]

I'm doing a web search on this Kilgore clown and found this:

(Gay and Lesbians sued Arkansas and the trial was in his court.) Here's quote from his ruling:

On June 23, Judge Collins Kilgore announced that the challenge to the state’s sodomy ban could proceed. "This court finds that plaintiffs have the standing [to sue] where the challenged act affects conduct so intimate and private," he wrote. Kilgore’s decision also found it unacceptable that Arkansas lesbians and gays have "to live and suffer the harms associated with continuing threats of criminal prosecution under a constitutionally suspect scheme."

WHY am I not surprised?? (Probably more to come)

[lizma]

The "soccer moms" of the world cannot tolerate such cheaters.

That is sooooo true.

I've been living in the "soccer mom" world for the past three years. They are very politically apathetic and can be emotionally motivated but I'm amazed how very socially conservative they are.

[Humidston]

LOL!! Check this out... (Off the Lambda website)

(NEW YORK, May 10, 1999) -- As sodomy laws topple state by state, the Arkansas Supreme Court will hear a case challenging a ban against the private, consensual sexual activities of lesbians and gay men, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Friday.

[coloradan]

That wording sounds like it could perfectly apply to gun owners.

[altair]

The GOP election monitors were instructed to challenge every ballot cast by persons who entered the voting place after 7:30 pm, so those ballots should be marked.

Excellent!

[Cold Heat]

I cannot think of a race that would be affected. Most of the magins were larger then any estimate I could come up with.

Bear in mind that this was only Pulaski cty, and that not all the precincts remained open. The reported after hours voting was said to be light.

[Humidston]

Here's his home page with photo....

http://www.racetotherock.com/view.asp?canid=40

[Humidston]

Here's another controversial case:

In a ruling that Arkansas officials intend to challenge, a judge has struck down the state's formula for distributing money to schools, saying it is not adequate or fair to poorer districts.

"The governor hopes we can get it turned over on an appeal," Jim Harris, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, said last week. "The governor has been in favor of improving education, but he just wants to make sure this ruling is correct."

(And a better photo, btw.)

Here's the link: http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=39ark.h20

[Graewoulf]

Would it now be wonderful if the USA had a 48 hour voting period from Midnight of the first THURSDAY in November until Midnight of the following Saturday? Just think of it:

1.) "The Media" could not forcast their predictions for 48 hours!

2.) Business people who travel during the week could vote on Saturday.

3.) People could vote after the evening meal instead of having to choose between getting to work late in the morning or skipping the evening meal while they stand in long lines to vote.

4.) Few would have an excuse as to why they "couldn't" vote.

5.) None of the political parties would like it. (My favorite reason.)

[Humidston]

Here's a biased newspaper snippet praising him for tying up the state assembly over equal funding for education:

"But Judge Kilgore has this session of the General Assembly tied up in knots. Some time after final arguments are filed this week, the judge is going to rule on the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state school funding formula. He might even rule on the sufficiency of the education provided in Arkansas public schools."

http://www.arktimes.com/max/022301brantley.html

[Humidston]

This is very interesting!

"A lawsuit challenging Little Rock's method of paying for land for the Bill Clinton presidential library has been dismissed. The case was set to go before a judge next week.

On Wednesday, Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Collins Kilgore issued an order dropping the case— at the request of the lawyer for the woman who filed the suit. Lawyer David Henry said he needed more time to prepare for trial."

http://www.kark.com/karktv/news/story_tmp.asp?cmd=view&storyid=4625

What do you want to bet the lawyer saw which court his client's case was to be heard in, and decided to bail out, LOL!

[Theodore R.]

This is the kind of ruling judges like: an affirmation of moral principle when it has no practical significance in the case at hand.

[jjhunsecker]

Pryor won very convincingly by over 150,000 votes plus, The Pulaski County situation did not affect the outcome one way or another. It is mostly local elections that might have been affected.

[Humidston]

Well, wonder of wonders... Here's the ballot and unofficial results of the Arkansas election and our judge is a Rat - AND HE WON!

CHANCERY JUDGE, DISTRICT 06, DIVISION 02
Winner JUDGE COLLINS KILGORE DEMOCRAT 55,192
H. OSCAR HIRBY REPUBLICAN 38,599

http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us/ballot_results.html

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

The court said today quote "The legislative branch of our state government has spoken on this issue and there is no provision in our election code authorizing an extension on voting times by the judiciary

What's wrong with them?!?! Interpreting the law as written rather than making their own up! Have they NOT talked to the N.J. Supreme Court lately?!

[fifteendogs]

"We hold that Judge Kilgore clearly abused his discretion and exceeded his authority in extending the voting hours to nine p.m. in contravention of state law."

Gee, how do you think that they will punish this judge?

[MHGinTN]

Nick, if the SCOTUS rules that the replacement candidate ruling was not legit, would that trigger a special election, or would the remaining candidates 'only' have their votes counted?

[Kewlhand`tek]

well the reason why the polls were held open is because of the County Clerk Carolyn staley. there werent poll works out and no ballots.........she does this quite often and yet there never is any question of charging her with anything. Im serious she had problems in the 2000 elections, minor local elections and probably ones i dont even remember. As far as pryor and hutchingson that race was called b4 pulaski county votes were in ........at least i didnt see any results from pulaski county till around noon on wednsday!