On April 13, an Arkansas state trial court put Sandra Young Harris back on the May 24 primary ballot. She is running for a judicial office. The Secretary of State had removed her after noticing that a campaign finance form she filled out had the wrong subdistrict number. See this story. The judge found that there is a fundamental right to be a candidate in the Arkansas Constitution, and that restrictions are to be liberally interpreted.
Election officials will now need to re-program vote-counting machines.
Why is their filing deadline not followed by a review/resubmittal period in which to correct mistakes on forms before ballots are finalized? It’s very inappropriate, borderline negligence, to push this onto the courts.
Ye olde ***substantial compliance with the [election] law*** ???
AR trial courts — NOT precedential ???