2021 & 2022

In 2020, Arkansas ranked last in the nation for voter registration and election participation. For years, the state has faced persistently low voter registration, low voter turnout, and increasing barriers that make it harder for eligible Arkansans to participate in our democracy.

Get Loud Arkansas (GLA) was founded in late 2021 to change that.

Built on the belief that every eligible Arkansan deserves the opportunity to make their voice heard, GLA works to expand voter registration, increase civic participation, protect voting rights, and help Arkansans have what they need to vote. Our guiding principle is simple: every voice matters, and every vote matters, because if voting didn’t matter, there wouldn’t be such a concerted effort to make it harder.

Co-founded by former State Senator Joyce Elliott, GLA quickly established itself as a statewide leader in voter engagement. During its first two years, GLA registered more than 6,200 voters across 64 Arkansas counties and mobilized nearly 30,000 low-turnout voters in eight priority counties during the 2022 election cycle. Through voter registration drives, college campus organizing, civic education, and community outreach, GLA expanded access to the ballot for thousands of Arkansans.

2023 & 2024

In 2023, the organization closely monitored legislation aimed to disenfranchise voters and restrict voting access while tracking voter registration purges that disproportionately affected low-income communities and communities of color. Through targeted social media campaigns, text banking, and direct voter outreach, GLA helped thousands of Arkansans verify and protect their voter registration before Election Day.

In 2024, GLA continued its voter registration efforts while confronting one of its biggest challenges yet. After then-Secretary of State John Thurston prohibited GLA’s use of its online voter registration tools, the organization filed a lawsuit arguing that Arkansas’s “wet signature” requirement violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Simultaneously, GLA continued to expand their efforts to increase voter registration and turnout. Staff and volunteers registered voters, sent voter education mailers and text messages, knocked on thousands of doors, and organized a bus tour through the Arkansas Delta to engage communities with historically low voter turnout and large populations of voters of color. GLA also recruited and trained volunteer poll watchers who served in 20 counties during the 2024 November general election to help ensure voters could cast their ballots without intimidation or unnecessary barriers.

2025 & 2026

In 2025, Arkansas enacted additional laws that further restricted voting access and weakened the state’s citizen-led ballot initiative process, creating new obstacles for civic participation. GLA carried the momentum during this time into School Board Elections and Special Elections throughout the year, focusing on increasing voter turnout for these often overlooked races.

Today, the work continues. In 2026, GLA celebrated a major legal victory in its fight to protect access to voter registration. After GLA and its partners challenged Arkansas’s “wet signature” requirement in federal court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction in September 2024, blocking the state from enforcing the rule and rejecting voter registration applications solely because they contained digital or electronic signatures. The state appealed the decision, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily stayed the injunction while the appeal moved forward. On March 31, 2026, the Eighth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision, affirming that Arkansas could not enforce the wet signature rule because the requirement was not material to determining whether an individual was qualified to vote. This decision allows GLA to continue using its online voter registration form tool, the GLA Easy Application, helping make voter registration more accessible to Arkansans across the state.

GLA is committed to making sure voices across Arkansas are amplified through voter registration, increasing voter turnout, and providing information and resources for Arkansans to participate in civic engagement. Arkansas is worth fighting for.

OUR newsroom

Learn more about our current projects.

No Posts Found