Cole Jester, Arkansas Secretary of State, on Wednesday announced a new initiative aimed at preventing people from being registered to vote in multiple states.
The “One State One Vote” initiative creates a partnership between Arkansas and its neighboring states to identify potential duplicate voter registrations and investigate possible cases of voter fraud, Jester’s office said in a news release.
“This is about putting election security first. People simply should not be voting in multiple states or be registered to vote in multiple states,” Jester said. “In this office, we will always push forward to pursue elections with accuracy and ever increasing excellence.”
All of Arkansas’ neighboring states are led by Republican secretaries of state. Jester said he has already begun working with his counterparts to share data on potential duplicates. The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office will investigate the findings to determine who has permanently moved out of state and will begin the process of removing them from the voter rolls.
Updates will be provided in the coming weeks as states share and process their data, according to the release.
John Thurston left the secretary of state’s office after being elected state treasurer in November, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed Jester to the vacancy in December.
Jester ordered an election security review shortly after taking office in January. When the report was released in February, he declared Arkansas had “the most secure elections in the country,” while questioning the security of absentee voting and the integrity of citizen-led ballot initiatives.
Several Republican lawmakers also raised concerns about ballot initiatives and passed laws during the 2025 legislative session altering the state’s direct democracy process. Some of those laws are being challenged in court.
For more from the Arkansas Advocate, click here.
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