Tensions as votes tallied
Police report said to be filed in commission altercation.
Pulaski County election workers on Tuesday continued processing remaining ballots so they can be tabulated, with implications for the slim margins in two state House races, during ongoing acrimony between members of the Pulaski County Election Commission and the staff.
According to officials, an altercation occurred last week between the commission’s chairperson, Evelyn Gomez, and the assistant director of elections, Shawn Camp. The incident took place on Election Day, and a report was filed Tuesday with the Little Rock Police Department, Camp said.
Sworn election workers at the commission’s office Tuesday morning were handling an administrative step, adding names to a list of voters in this election based on the individuals who cast provisional absentee ballots.
Bryan Poe, a staff member who serves as director of elections for the election commission, told election workers Tuesday morning that 1,602 ballots required the step. Those ballots ultimately will be accepted and tabulated, according to Camp.
Close races for the Arkansas House of Representatives in two Central Arkansas districts could come down to the final ballots.
Rep. Jim Sorvillo, R-Little Rock, of District 32 and Rep. Carlton Wing, R-North Little Rock, of District 38 led their Democratic opponents by 44 and 55 votes, respectively, according to the latest unofficial election returns posted Tuesday evening. Sorvillo led Ashley Hudson 8,337-8,293, and Wing led Matthew Stallings 7,048-6,993.
Seniority rankings and committee assignments in the House have been stalled until winners can be determined.
At the same time that officials worked to tabulate remaining ballots, hostility between the appointed commissioners and the commission staff members led to a police officer visiting the commission to speak with officials about the purported altercation.
Video posted Tuesday on Twitter by the account “On AR Watch” appeared to show a police officer approaching Gomez in the area where workers had been processing voter information earlier that day.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Camp said the incident occurred on Election Day last week. Camp said Gomez pushed him as she tried to gain access to the suite of offices used by the commission staff members. He said that once Gomez forced her way into the office, they had a conversation about the process of remaking ballots.
“Her quote to me was, ‘I’m a commissioner; I’m coming in,’” Camp said.
He called the incident more problematic than a mere shove.
“Unfortunately, the problem — it’s not just a simple assault,” Camp said. “I’m an election official on Election Day in the conduct of my official election duties. That falls under other sections of code.”
In addition to the police report, Camp said, he filed a complaint with the human resources department of Pulaski County and with the prosecuting attorney’s office.
An officer took Camp’s report Tuesday in person, Camp said. With regard to the delay between the date of the incident and the report, Camp said he was unable to file a police report until Tuesday despite going to two police substations and making multiple phone calls.
Near the end of an election commission meeting Friday, Gomez apparently referred to the incident.
“I actually had to literally push Mr. Camp out of the way to be allowed admittance into the office,” Gomez said during the meeting.
“So you pushed Mr. Camp?” Poe said, off-camera, according to video of the meeting.
“I — yes, I did. … He told me I wasn’t allowed in the office, and I went in anyway,” Gomez said.
In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Gomez declined to elaborate after she acknowledged speaking to a police officer at the commission’s office that day. Later, when presented with the specifics of Camp’s allegation, Gomez wrote in a text message, “I don’t have a comment at this time,” then added, “I can’t say that’s true.”
Gomez, a Republican, chairs the three-member election commission, which is made up of two Republicans and one Democrat.
Officials with the Little Rock Police Department could not immediately provide an incident report related to the alleged altercation.
A meeting of the election commission scheduled for Tuesday was abruptly canceled on Tuesday afternoon.
On Friday, prompted by the Arkansas GOP chairman, commissioners voted to prohibit Camp from handling live ballots but allowed him to perform other tasks.
The move by the commission followed a cease-and-desist letter sent to the panel by Doyle Webb, chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party. In the letter, Webb asked commissioners to withdraw Camp’s ability to perform any duties related to the Nov. 3 election and runoff.
During a meeting Monday, the commissioners responded to an additional request submitted by Webb via the letter, in which he asked them to withdraw approval for Catherine Dunlap, an election worker, to perform any duties.
The commission unanimously voted to decertify Dunlap for the remainder of the election cycle, including the runoff election.
Although Webb noted that the letter was not meant to accuse Camp or Dunlap of specific wrongdoing, he said poll watchers had raised concerns about the delivery of raw ballots from behind closed doors into a pool of ballots to be spoiled, duplicated or re-created.
In a lengthy address to election workers on Tuesday morning before they began their work, Camp criticized the decertification of Dunlap. He said the accusations lacked any evidence and that Dunlap acted solely at the direction of Poe.
He told election workers that forces in the community “choose to demonize you.”
“They choose to demonize this process,” Camp said. “They seek to sow chaos within an otherwise very smooth election.”
The idea that Pulaski County does not know how to conduct an election is a lie, Camp said. He said “specious allegations of wrongdoing” had been directed at him personally.
“I assure you none of them are true,” he said. “I have been slandered online and in public meetings. I have been libeled by one particular political party. And I continue to be cyberbullied because these public meetings are livestreamed and will persist in perpetuity online.”
He did not name specific individuals who he said had falsely accused him. When asked about his remarks, Camp declined to provide more details.
“My comments were intentionally general,” he said in an interview Tuesday morning.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Poe said he did not witness the incident between Camp and Gomez. He said he was made aware of it when Gomez described it during the public meeting Friday.
“As with any other professional workplace, that’s simply unacceptable to lay hands on employees,” Poe said.
Poe said he expressed concern to the county’s human resources department and asked the department for guidance after he learned what had happened.