FILE – Former NFL football player Jake Bequette speaks to reporters at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, after filing paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate. Bequette is challenging incumbent GOP Sen. John Boozman in the state’s May primary. On Tuesday, May 10, 2022, Bequette filed a lawsuit after two counties incorrectly listed his first name as “Jack” on their ballots for this month’s Republican primary election, with early voting already underway.
AP Photo: Andrew DeMillo, File
An Arkansas county has corrected an error on its ballots that misidentified Senate hopeful Jake Bequette as “Jack,” and another county is working to correct the same typo.
A judge on Friday declined to dismiss the lawsuit filed against election officials by Bequette, who’s challenging Sen. John Boozman in the May 24 Republican primary, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Bequette filed a lawsuit seeking to force election officials to correct the error on ballots in Craighead and Phillips counties and notify voters of the mistake.
But Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce said he considered the issue moot because Craighead County corrected the error Thursday and Phillips County was working to correct it. Pierce said it was troubling that the error wasn’t fixed before early voting began Monday.
Bequette is one of three candidates challenging Boozman in the primary. Conservative activist Jan Morgan and Stuttgart pastor Heath Loftis are also seeking the party’s nomination.
