Judge curbs vote of college students
People who live in Clark County temporarily to attend college can’t vote in the Nov. 5 election, according to a circuit judge’s ruling Tuesday that was widely denounced by figures from both major political parties.
Though limited to college students in Clark County, the ruling signals the possibility that such a decision could be reached if other cases were filed in other counties, potentially affecting campuses from Fayetteville to Monticello, El Dorado to Jonesboro.
Gov. Mike Huckabee, the Republican nominee for governor, was accompanied by his daughter, Sarah, a Clark County student at Ouachita Baptist University, when he called the ruling "an absolute outrage" at a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Governor’s Mansion.
Huckabee said as many as 1,000 college students "have essentially been disenfranchised from their right to vote."
Huckabee said the ruling "is absolutely one of the worst things that’s happened in Arkansas politics in a long time. I think it shows why we have to see some real changes in the one-party fiefdom that we have operated under."
State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher, Huckabee’s Democratic opponent in the race for governor, called the decision "appalling."
Secretary of State Sharon Priest, the state’s chief election officer, urged the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to oppose the ruling by Clark County Circuit Judge John A. Thomas. "Three words: It is unconstitutional," said Rita Sklar, executive director of the state ACLU. "The right of college students to vote in the place where they attend college is well-established under case law."
Thomas’ ruling applies only in the case of students at Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University, both in Arkadelphia. It orders the county clerk not to register any more college students who temporarily live in the county and to purge from the voter rolls before the Nov. 5 election any who already are registered.
It was unclear how many of the 807 people listed on voter rolls with a Ouachita Baptist address or the 112 with a Henderson State address would be affected by the ruling. The lawyer who represented the county clerk in the case said anyone who isn’t allowed to vote under Thomas’ ruling still may cast a challenged ballot, which could be counted if the judge’s ruling is overturned.
The ruling came in response to an Oct. 10 suit filed by Tom Curry of Arkadelphia, a lawyer. Curry sued Clark County Clerk Rhonda Williams, arguing that state law requires college students to register to vote in the county in which their permanent residence is located.
Curry said Tuesday that no one from the state Democratic Party was involved in the lawsuit. He said the governor should have contacted him before insinuating that politics was behind the suit. "The Baptist church I was raised in said it’s wrong to bear false witness against one’s neighbor," Curry said.
Thomas’ ruling said people who move temporarily to a county to attend college remain residents of their former home, rather than becoming residents of the county containing the college they attend.
Priest said later Tuesday that it’s illegal to be registered to vote in two counties under Arkansas Code 7-1-103 (12).
Attorney General Mark Pryor said in an opinion two years ago that "a college student does not... establish residency for voting purposes by living in the county of the school he is attending nine months out of the year." Attorney general opinions are not legally binding.
Fisher said her campaign is inclusive and she supports allowing everyone in Arkansas the right to register and vote in the election. She called on the secretary of state and the attorney general to appeal Thomas’ ruling. The ACLU, Priest and the attorney general would have to become parties to the case to have a role. "College students are no exception," Fisher said. "They have perhaps the greatest stake of all in this election. It is the responsibility of everyone of legal age to vote, and I find it detestable that anyone would restrict a citizen’s access to vote, especially those just beginning to form the habit of voting."
But Curry said based on his reading of state law, it’s wrong for someone whose only link to Clark County is attending college to affect the outcome of the county’s elections. "Every time a student who’s not a permanent resident of Clark County votes, they decrease the value of my vote," Curry said. "The statute’s clear."
Thomas didn’t return a telephone message Tuesday seeking comment on his ruling and the criticisms of it.
The ruling cited Arkansas Code Annotated 7-5-201 (b) (6), which Curry cited in his complaint.
That statute says, "Persons who are temporarily living in a particular place because of a temporary work-related assignment or duty post or as a result of their performing duties in connection with their status as military personnel, students, or office holders shall be deemed residents of that place where they established their home prior to beginning such assignments or duties."
Sklar said, "It could be that the statute is unconstitutional."
Sarah Huckabee, vice president of Ouachita Baptist’s student senate, said she would "do anything I can in order to be able to vote because I feel I have that right and I have earned that right to vote."
She said she served four days on a jury and believes "that kind of gives me my constitutional right to vote in Arkadelphia. I think that by taking that right away from one person threatens the rights of every voter in Arkansas, not just the 1,000 college students there."
Lawyer Ralph Ohm of Hot Springs, who represented Williams, said Williams doesn’t have an opinion on whether state law allows or prohibits college students from voting where they go to college. "Our position is that the county wanted some guidance on what to do on this issue, and the court gave it to us [Tuesday]," Ohm said. "She is not taking a position in this case. If [Thomas’] ruling is overturned, we’ll do whatever that ruling says."
Ohm said some of the 807 people listed on voter rolls with a Ouachita Baptist address and the 112 listed with a Henderson address could be permanent residents of the county who live on campus.
Charles Cabe of Gurdon, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, called the ruling "obviously just party politics."
Cabe said he believes the ruling, issued by a judge who initially sought the bench as a Democrat, selectively addressed Ouachita Baptist students. "There’s been a lot of Republican support at Ouachita Baptist, and I feel like that is what’s being done," Cabe said.
Circuit judges now run as nonpartisan candidates under a constitutional amendment adopted by voters in 2000.
Curry said his lawsuit had nothing to do with politics. "I’m not affiliated with either party," he said. "The right to vote is what it’s all about."
Todd Turner of Arkadelphia, the county Democratic chairman and a former Ouachita Baptist student, scoffed at the notion that the ruling was directed at Republican students. "How would anybody know that?" he asked. "I sure don’t think it’s a partisan deal.... It’s been a hot topic in this town for many, many years, but the Democratic Party has always stayed out of it."
Jeff Root, a Ouachita Baptist spokesman, declined to take a stand on whether it involved politics.
Root said the county clerk’s office must be careful, however, in eliminating names from the voter rolls. "I know a lot of Arkadelphia kids who move to campus when they enroll in school," he said.
Curry said he was "not concerned how these students vote. They really need to vote back home."