Arkansas Statutes § 7-1-104 Miscellaneous felonies - Penalties

Statute Text

(a) The following offenses shall be deemed felonies punishable as provided in this section:

(1) No person shall falsely make or fraudulently destroy any certificate of nominations or any part thereof, file any certificate of nominations knowing the certificate or any part thereof to be false, suppress any nomination or any part thereof which has been filed, or forge or falsely write the name or initials of any election official on any ballot;

(2) No public official or other person shall in any manner willfully or corruptly permit any person not entitled to register for the purpose of voting to register, nor shall a public official or other person forge or attempt to forge a registration;

(3) No person shall vote in any election in the state unless the person is a qualified elector of this state and has registered to vote in the manner provided by law;

(4) It shall be unlawful for any person to offer, accept, receive, or pay any person any money, goods, wares, or merchandise or solicit any money, goods, wares, or merchandise for the purpose of influencing his or her vote during the progress of any election in this state;

(5) It shall be unlawful for any person to make any threat or attempt to intimidate any elector or the family, business, or profession of the elector;

(6) It shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with or to prevent any qualified elector from voting at any election or to attempt to interfere with or to prevent any qualified elector from voting at any election, provided that this subdivision (a)(6) shall not prohibit good faith challenges of ballots or voters according to law by candidates, authorized representatives of candidates, political parties, or ballot issues;

(7) It shall be unlawful for any person to attend any polling site on election day and hand out or give away any campaign cards, placards, or other articles for the purpose of influencing the electors to vote for any candidate, except in the manner now provided by law;

(8)

(A) It shall be unlawful for a person with the intent to defraud a voter or an election official to possess an absentee ballot issued to another.

(B) The possession by a person of more than four (4) absentee ballots creates a rebuttable presumption of intent to defraud.

(i) An employee of the United States Postal Service performing the normal course of the employee's authorized duties;

(ii) A common or contract carrier performing the normal course of the carrier's authorized duties;

(iii) The administrative head of a long-term care or residential care facility licensed by the state authorized by a voter under Arkansas law; or

(iv) An election official acting in his or her official capacity;

(9) No person shall tamper with a voting machine or fraudulently affect or attempt to affect its results;

(10) No person may cast a ballot in more than one (1) party primary election on the same day in this state or for candidates for more than one (1) political party;

(11) No person shall vote in any election more than one (1) vote;

(12) No person shall vote or attempt to vote other than his or her legal ballot;

(13) No election official shall knowingly permit any person to vote other than his or her legal ballot in any election;

(14) No election official or other person shall fraudulently permit any person to vote illegally, refuse the vote of any qualified elector, or cast up or make a false return of any election;

(15) No election official or other person shall willfully make a false count of any election ballots or falsely or fraudulently certify the returns of any election;

(16) No person shall fraudulently change, alter, or obliterate the poll books or books of any election or break any seals upon any ballot box, voting machine, or stub box, except as authorized by law;

(17) No person shall contrive, alter, forge, counterfeit, detain, mutilate, steal, secrete, or destroy any election returns or election materials for the purpose of hindering or preventing or falsely reporting a tabulation or check of the returns;

(18) Any person who violates the provisions of § 7-5-702 or who shall disclose how any voter may have voted unless compelled to do so in a judicial proceeding shall be deemed guilty of a Class D felony and punished as provided in this section; and

(19) No person shall forge the signature of a voter on an absentee ballot application, absentee ballot voter statement, or voter registration application.

(b)

(1) Any person convicted of a felony as defined in this section shall be guilty of a Class D felony.

(2)

(A) Any person convicted of a felony as defined in this section shall be barred from holding public office or employment in any of the departments of the state from the date of his or her conviction.

(B)

(i) If the person is employed by any of the departments of this state at the time of his or her conviction, he or she shall be removed from employment immediately.

(ii) If any person is convicted under the provisions of this section while holding public office, the conviction shall be deemed a misfeasance and malfeasance in office and shall subject the person to impeachment.

(c) A person convicted of a felony as listed in this section shall be barred from serving as an election official in subsequent elections.

History

Amended by Act 2023 , No. 620 , § 1 , eff. 8/1/2023 .

Amended by Act 2021 , No. 974 , § 2 , eff. 7/28/2021 .

Amended by Act 2021 , No. 736 , § 1 , eff. 7/28/2021 .

Acts 1969, No. 465, Art. 11, § 5; A.S.A. 1947, § 3-1105; Acts 1995, No. 497, § 1; 1995, No. 1085, § 1; 1997, No. 445, § 3; 1999, No. 655, § 1; 2001, No. 1553, § 17; 2003, No. 1458, § 1; 2005, No. 1677, § 1; 2009, No. 658, § 2.

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Prior Versions of This Statute

Version of § 7-1-104 dated 10/30/2024