Democrats, ACLU get files on felon flagging to ban voters using flawed data
Secretary of State Mark Martin's office Friday provided documents, related to how it flagged voters as felons, to the state Democratic Party and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, both of which sought the files under the state Freedom of Information Act.
But late Friday, the Democratic Party said in a statement that it was unhappy with the time the office took to provide the response and said more documents should have been included. The party also said it was likely to file a lawsuit.
Martin, an elected official, is a Republican. The secretary of state's office notified county clerks in June that it had updated the statewide voter database by flagging 7,730 registered voters that the Arkansas Crime Information Center said were convicted of felonies.
The data was flawed; some people shouldn't have been on the list, including some who were not convicted of felonies. Others already had regained their right to vote. County clerks had to determine which people needed to be struck from voter rolls.
Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/aug/13/democrats-aclu-get-files-on-felon-flagg/?f=news-politics