Houpt reflects on time as election commissioner
After serving several dedicated years as chairman on the Hot Spring County Election Commission, Jim Houpt has resigned. Throughout many years of his life, Houpt has been a major part of the election commission.
He has been involved with the election commission since 2009 as a member of the Hot Spring County Republican Party.
The HSC Republican committee appointed Houpt as chairman of the election commission January 28, 2015. While fulfilling duties as chairman, he mentioned there has been many challenges in order to prepare and accommodate all registered voters during elections.
He enjoyed working productively with the HSC election staff, commissioners during meetings and elections with the preparation process.
The county has made great strides for elections," Houpt expressed.
Duties needed in preparation for each election consisted of securing proper polling locations, testing all vote machines and voting printers to make sure each polling site's vote machines worked efficiently and having enough poll workers — as well as many other responsibilities during the election process.
Houpt stated while being a part of the election commission, the county started with 25 polling locations, then changed to 10 locations and even down to just two polling sites. Although this has been an adjustment, Houpt felt the election staff handled each situation well—despite having a tremendous load of work that needed to be done.
For each election, Houpt also mentioned the election staff ensured that each polling site was wheelchair accessible for voters who are handicap or with a disability.
Hot Spring County Clerk Sandy Boyette thought Houpt fulfilled his role with the election commission very well and he truly had an impact on each election conducted smoothly.
"Jim started as vice chair on the election commission, representing the Republican Party, on July 12, 2009. He was appointed chairman January 28, 2015. He is very dependable, always willing to help on all our elections," Boyette said.
She added he was always there for all of the preparations of an election. "Getting all the election equipment ready for each election. He would hold classes to train the poll workers. Would always be at the polling sites to keep everything running smoothly," she said.
Houpt took a lot of pride in his duties as chairman with the election commission which Boyette thought made him stand out amongst the best.
"Great person to work with. We had a state coordinator who said that he was the best commissioner in the state," Boyette said.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the election staff had to work extremely hard to prepare for a highly anticipated general election on November 3, 2020. Houpt mentioned this was a challenging task, but the election staff planned months ahead prior to the
general election.
To accommodate the public and to abide by the health and safety guidelines enforced by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the election staff decided to decrease the number of polling locations. Houpt said Liz Pfeiffer, deputy of elections, came up with the idea during an election meeting to use the inside of the HSC Fairgrounds for the central location during the general election. The setup worked productively and Houpt noted—the success of conducting the election was a valuable team effort by the election committee.
To follow proper and safety guidelines to protect the health of everyone's well being due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the election staff ensured disinfectant supplies of hand sanitizer and a minimum of 70 percent of alcohol disinfectant spray and materials were available at all vote centers during early voting and on election day. Also there were markers placed on the floor and dividers set up to keep voters six feet apart for social distancing.
Signs also were posted on the door at the HSC Election office building with information pertaining to all of the polling locations for early voting and on election day Nov. 3, 2020.
Even in a pandemic, the
general election in November 2020 brought more voters and new registered voters to take action and cast their ballots. For a memorable election nationwide, the HSC presented record-breaking numbers of voters during the election. For the first week of early voting there were 4,737 registered voters that voted at the HSC Fairgrounds in Malvern—October 19 through 24, 2020.
That number increased to more than 6,000 registered voters going into the second week of early voting.
Within the first few days of early voting, there had been more than 3,000 voters exercising their votes at the fairgrounds out of 18,130 total registered voters in the county. For the first three
days of early voting the HSC election staff received an average of 900 voters each day at the fairgrounds. Due to the virus, more voters chose to vote by absentee ballots in the 2020 November general election than in 2016. It is noted there were around 230 absentee ballots in 2016— and 2020 presented more than 1,000 in the county.
Houpt said he will remember being a part of several big presidential elections and intense races such as in 2016 (Hilary Clinton-Donald Trump) and 2020 (Joe Biden-Donald Trump.)
Although elections will always be an important part of Houpt's life, he'll always cherish escorting lifelong county voter Arkie Neal Remley into the polling sites
to vote. Remley is the first cousin and relative of Houpt. Remley, who is 103-yearsold, has been a registered voter since she was 21 years old.
She was born June 25, 1917 and has been a registered voter in Hot Spring County for 70 years since 1949— reaching a milestone to devote time to vote in elections.
Houpt and wife Holly always embrace the historic day of Remley exercising her passion to vote as a family tradition.
Houpt is a 1963 graduate of Glen Rose High School and served three years in the United States Air Force. He worked as an installer, engineer and supervisor for AT&T and is currently chair