State appoints election monitor for Pine Bluff

PINE BLUFF — A state-appointed election monitor will oversee the ballot count in four Pine Bluff precincts after the State Board of Election Commissioners approved a request by one of the candidates affected by a ballot error that was discovered last week during early voting.

Keidra Burrell, of Pine Bluff, a candidate in the Democratic Primary race for the District 27 State Senate seat, made the request Friday afternoon.

On Monday afternoon, in a special meeting, the state board unanimously approved the appointment of former Faulkner County election commissioner Bruce Haggard will serve as the monitor for Jefferson County.

Burrell’s primary opponent, former Rep. Garry Smith of Sheridan, did not formally request a monitor but was “excited” to learn one may be appointed, said Chris Madison, legal counsel for the State Board of Election Commissioners.

The winner of the Democratic Primary race will face Republican Sen. Trent Garner, the incumbent, in November.

Earlier on Monday, election commissioners in Jefferson County voted to also request an election monitor from the state board, and to toss out approximately 152 early votes from those precincts that were miscast in early voting.

Those votes were mistakenly cast in the District 25 State Senate race due to a ballot error that was not discovered until Thursday during early voting at the Jefferson County Courthouse. The error had placed the District 25 race between Democrats Efrem Elliott of White Hall and Sen. Stephanie Flowers Pine Bluff on those ballots instead of the District 27 race between Smith and Burrell. There is no Republican candidate in the District 25 race.

Commissioners also voted to not count any votes in that race from 15 absentee ballots that were mailed out by the county clerk’s office. The commission will instead count corrected ballots from those voters that were sent out by the clerk’s office provided those ballots are filled out and postmarked by March 3, which is Election Day.

Voters in the four precincts which omitted the District 27 race are being contacted by the Jefferson County Clerk’s office to come in again and vote in the correct race. Those voters have until the polls close on election night to correct their votes at the clerk’s office. After the polls close, officials will identify the wrongfully cast ballots in the District 25 race and cull them from the total by identifying non-eligible voters.

Tensions have run high over the ballot error, which Commissioner Stuart “Stu” Soffer, a Republican, admitted responsibility for, citing human error in programming the ballot, an explanation which has rankled some Jefferson County Democrats and even prompted the Democratic Party of Arkansas to demand his resignation or removal.

Monday’s meeting in Pine Bluff was contentious, with Soffer and Commissioner Theodis “Ted” Davis trading barbs, interrupting one another, and the meeting being gaveled to an immediate recess after Soffer said he would not participate unless a sheriff’s deputy was present, due to the contentious nature of the election commission meetings in recent months.

Within a few minutes, a deputy from the Jefferson County sheriff’s office arrived and the meeting resumed, although the tenor of the meeting was no less contentious than in recent meetings.

During a period of public comment, Sam Whitfield, a candidate for Pine Bluff City Council, accused county election chairman Michael Adam, a Republican, and Soffer of violating the trust of voters and the integrity of the election in Jefferson County, suggesting that they had violated federal election law as well, and demanded that they resign.

Today, when the early votes are tallied and absentee votes are counted, the election monitor will watch Jefferson County’s procedures to ensure mistakes are corrected in the four Pine Bluff precincts in which voters who were supposed to receive Senate District 27 ballots instead received District 25 ballots.

Also, the monitor will be responsible for ensuring that ballots are accurate at the lone polling place serving these four precincts, observing the initial canvassing of the absentee ballots from those precincts, returning to the problematic polling location at 7 p.m. to observe the poll closing procedures (polls close at 7:30 p.m.) and finally going to the headquarters of the county election commission to observe as votes are counted for those precincts.

The monitor will submit a report to the State Board of Election Commissioners within two weeks after polls close on Tuesday, commission director Daniel Shults said.