Election official’s censure faulted
A Sept. 18 censure of Jefferson County Election Commissioner Theodis “Ted” Davis by fellow commissioners Michael Adam and Stuart “Stu” Soffer has led to a complaint by a local attorney to the State Board of Election Commissioners alleging the actions by Adam and Soffer violated the Arkansas open meetings law.
On Monday, a Little Rock attorney sought to obtain email records that could demonstrate that Soffer and Adam either broke the law or could exonerate them, but was denied access by Soffer.
On Sept. 18, Davis received the censure during a raucous, contentious meeting regarding comments Davis had made about Soffer at a Sept. 10 meeting over a comment Soffer had made on an Arkansas Times blog post in which Soffer directed an insult toward Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth following a public spat Hollingsworth had had with state Republican Chairman Doyle Webb.
On Sept. 28, the censure was rescinded, and although Soffer indicated that he was apologizing to Davis, he left open the possibility that he may pursue a civil claim against Davis at a later date.
“We’re handling it as a civil matter, and I don’t want to get the Election Commission involved, and I ask you to retract the censure against Commissioner Davis with our apologies,”
Soffer said in asking that the censure be withdrawn.
In his complaint, which was transmitted to the State Board of Election Commissioners via email on Saturday, the attorney, Michael McCray, alleged that Soffer and Adam violated one part of the statute by either meeting prior to the Sept. 18 meeting to draft the censure letter against Davis, or when Soffer transmitted a copy of the letter to Adam prior to the meeting, or both.
McCray alleged that Adam and Soffer violated that same provision in the statute along with one other by not holding that meeting in public and by not notifying the public, and that Adam violated the law by not notifying Davis of the meeting.
“For the purposes of Ark. Code Ann. § 7-4-105(b),” McCray’s complaint read, “it does not matter whether they actually met to discuss and draft the letter prior to the September 18, 2020 meeting or Mr. Soffer simply provided the contents of the letter to Mr. Adams (sic) prior to the September 18, 2020 meeting. Either way, it was a communication between two election commissioners on an issue of official business.”
Adam, contacted by phone Monday, said there was no meeting prior to the Sept. 18 meeting to discuss censure.
“No, we did not meet to talk about doing a censure,” Adam told the Pine Bluff Commercial. “Stu writes letters up ahead of time assuming that’s going to happen. He does that all the time, we get to the meeting, I look at the stuff and I decide what I’m going to do.
Stu decides his own stuff and that’s what he’s supposed to do,” Adam continued. “Then we meet and discuss it and go from there, so no, we didn’t discuss it before and I didn’t know about it.”
Adam said he was nevertheless unhappy with Davis’ comments at the prior meeting.
“There is no sense talking personal stuff in that room,” he said. “We’re trying to do Election Commission business.”
Despite Adam’s contention that Davis’ comments were purely personal, Soffer’s comments on the blog attracted attention from both Republican and Democratic Party officials, with the Democratic Party of Arkansas calling for Soffer’s resignation or dismissal from the Jefferson County Election Commission. Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Webb both disavowed Soffer’s comments as well, although neither man addressed the call for Soffer’s resignation or dismissal.
Soffer, in an email Monday, also denied that any meeting had happened between himself and Adam in advance of the Sept. 18 meeting, although he did allude to giving Adam a heads up in advance.
“When I asked Mike to put censure on the agenda he may have asked me why and I responded without going into detail,” Soffer said in the email. “I would say it was a verbal request. WE DID NOT MEET TO DISCUSS THE LETTER’S CONTENTS. I do NOT need help writing letters. If McCray has evidence the[n] he needs to provide it.”
Soffer has said in the past that he often prepares documents in advance of the meetings to save time, which he reiterated in an email to the Pine Bluff Commercial.
“Mike Adam and I did NOT discuss, preplan, scheme or otherwise draft the letter of censure for Theodis Davis,” Soffer’s email read. “It is 100 percent my initiative and work. As an experienced election commission Secretary, I routinely prepare correspondence of several types in anticipation of the item being needed at a meeting after a vote. The alternative is a delay in conducting election commission business.”
McCray said that Adam and Soffer have been a disruptive influence on elections in Jefferson County and said when citizens try to address the commission, they are shut down by the commission requirement that public comment be restricted only to new business coming before the commission.
“It’s just not a way to conduct public business,” McCray said.
A Freedom of Information request submitted Monday by Lawrence Walker, an attorney with the John W. Walker P.A. firm in Little Rock, requested all communications related to election commission business from September 16 through September 20, a request that Soffer denied on Monday.
“Mr. Walker,” Soffer wrote. “You do not have a right to access my or Chairman Adam’s personal email accounts. I cannot speak for Chairman Adam but I am denying your request. If you have a problem with this, please take it up with our legal adviser S. Kyle Hunter.”
Although Soffer cited the denial based on the Freedom of Information request being directed toward his and Adam’s personal email addresses, the addresses Walker requested the emails from are in fact the email addresses that both Adam and Soffer use to conduct Election Commission business on a regular basis.
Daniel Shults, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, said he could not comment on the merits of the complaint, but he did acknowledge receipt of the complaint. He said the State Board has 180 days to review the complaint and make a determination.
Shults confirmed that an election monitor requested by Davis was approved by the State Board.