The Democratic Pulaski County clerk and the Republican nominee for attorney general clashed Wednesday over the candidate's voter registration status.
Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane, who canceled the voter registration of attorney general candidate Leslie Rutledge this week after learning she had registered elsewhere, said he would recommend that Rutledge register to vote by Friday "to be safe" so that she qualifies to cast a vote in the Nov. 4 general election.
Accused by Rutledge's campaign, and state Republican officials, of "Chicago-style" political tactics employed to win the race for a fellow Democrat, Rep. Nate Steel, Crane took exception to the criticism.
He said he stood by his reading of the Arkansas Constitution and said that Rutledge's voter registrations outside Arkansas compelled him to remove her from county voting rolls.
"I have been involved in government since 1977 ... and this is the first time that I've ever been called unethical," Crane said. "I understand why she and her campaign are saying things, but quite honestly, it's inappropriate."
Rutledge said Wednesday that she is asking Crane to reinstate her registration. If he doesn't, Rutledge said, re-registration, as well as litigation, are both options she is evaluating.
When asked if it appeared that Crane overstepped his bounds as county clerk, a spokesman for Secretary of State Mark Martin, Laura Labay, released a statement from Martin, a Republican:
"[Martin's role] is to protect all voters' rights, whether you're a candidate on the ballot or a citizen of Arkansas," Martin wrote. "There are very limited circumstances in which a county clerk can remove a voter from the voter registration rolls."
Martin added: "If a county clerk violates federal election law, then it becomes matter for the U.S. Attorney."
Labay wouldn't say whether Martin believes Crane has violated federal election law.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Christopher Thyer, did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
The head of the state's Board of Election Commissioners, Justin Clay, said that his agency has "no involvement" so far in the dispute and pointed out that Rutledge is certified on the ballot and only a judge has the authority to change that.
Rutledge, a former legal aide to Gov. Mike Huckabee and staff member on his presidential campaign, registered to vote as a Republican in Washington, D.C., in July, according to Washington, D.C., Board of Elections documents verified by Crane, four months before the 2008 general election.
But her Arkansas registration was never canceled, according to Pulaski County records.
Despite her new Washington registration, she voted in Arkansas by absentee in the fall of 2008.
In September 2010, after moving to Alexandria, Va., she registered again, according to the city's general registrar.
Officials in Alexandria stated they had no indication that she was registered in Washington, D.C., or in Arkansas and did not notify election officials in either location to remove her from their voter rolls.
Asked why she voted in Arkansas in 2008 after registering to vote as a Republican in Washington, D.C., Rutledge said she voted absentee in Arkansas because that's where she knew she was registered.
On Wednesday, Rutledge told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that upon her return to Arkansas, she went to Crane's office in March 2013 to drop off a voter registration form, but that an employee at the office noticed she was still registered in Arkansas and instructed her to fill out a change-of-address form instead.
"[I said] 'I've been in Virginia and I need to register back in Arkansas.' The staff member said [I'm still registered in Arkansas]. I said 'I don't know how that is, I shouldn't be,'" Rutledge said. "To be honest, I had not thought anything about it until late yesterday afternoon [when contacted by county officials]."
Rutledge said Crane violated Amendment 51, Section 11 of the state constitution, which says that once someone registers with him, he is compelled to notify the registrars in a voter's former jurisdictions to remove that voter from their rolls.
Crane said Rutledge's account of her visit to his office in March 2013 is "inaccurate" and said his office couldn't cancel registrations in Washington, D.C., or Virginia, because they didn't know they existed.
"The problem was she didn't tell us she was actually registered in another state and did not fill out [the proper form] saying 'I am relinquishing my claim to vote anywhere else,'" he said. "If she had told anyone [in his office] she was coming in from out of state ... they would have done what needed to be done."
Rutledge's campaign also contends that Crane violated a section of the National Voter Registration Act when he removed her from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
On Wednesday, Crane suggested that Rutledge, and her campaign, take another look at the law.
Crane said the statute that Rutledge's campaign referred to, 52 USC 20507 -- which says a state "shall complete, no later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election ... any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters"-- only applies to his office's efforts to purge its voter rolls of all invalid registrants.
"If you're dead ... [you've been] convicted of a felony, if [you're] registered somewhere else and we find out about it, we'll take you off the voter registration rolls," Crane said.
Going forward, Rutledge said Crane's cancellation of her voter registration won't affect her candidacy.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Republican Party of Arkansas officials also accused Crane of violating state and federal laws and announced that the party has filed a request with the state Board of Election Commissioners to appoint an election monitor in Pulaski County.
At the end of business hours Wednesday, officials from the board said they had not received such a complaint.
Republican officials said in a statement that they filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Crane's office Wednesday "which could substantiate the partisan activities of the Office in the race for Arkansas Attorney General."
Metro on 10/02/2014