Benton County seeks vote-device funds
BENTONVILLE — Benton County officials will look at ways to pay for new voting equipment because state matching money is uncertain.
“I don’t want to take a step backwards,” said Tom Allen, justice of the peace and chairman of the Finance Committee. “I don’t want to see us go back to paper ballots and voting by precinct.”
County officials hoped Gov. Asa Hutchinson might release some money for counties to buy voting equipment. Hutchinson told a gathering of officials at a recent Association of Arkansas Counties meeting that there were other demands on the available money, and he couldn’t say that money would be available for new voting machines.
Benton County had drafted a $2.6 million list of new equipment to replace 20-yearold voting machines and other equipment now in use. With state money unavailable, at least for now, that list has been pared down to equipment that county election officials think is the minimum needed for the 2018 elections. The cost is estimated at $1.5 million. Officials expect a smaller turnout in 2018 than the 97,738 people who voted in 2016 because there is no presidential contest. An additional 175 voting machines with a cost of about $750,000 would be needed for the 2020 presidential election.
The county would decrease the number of Election Day vote centers from 44 to 35 and reduce the number of voting machines needed on Election Day from 475 to 300 under the $1.5 million plan.
Kim Dennison, election coordinator, said new equipment could increase the number of early voting sites since the voting machines can be used in early voting and Election Day voting.
“The new machines don’t store any votes internally like the old ones do,” Dennison said.
Allen wants to see the new list of equipment and cost estimates and have information on ways the county could finance the purchase. Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said the county has budgeted for about $14 million in unappropriated reserves for the end of 2017, but a proposed new facility to house all the county’s circuit courts is expected to take up a large part of that fund. The county may have other capital needs as well.
“We have talked about funding the purchase over three, four or five years,” Guenther said. “In general, it would have to come from the reserves or from turnback money, but with all the other demands, including the new courthouse, we think financing may be a good option.”
The county will return to paper ballots and precinct-based voting instead of vote centers if the money is not available, Dennison said. The number of possible ballot styles is estimated at more than 1,300 because of changes in election laws that place school elections on the same days as primaries and general elections.