Ex-county chief investigated for election actions
Changing of board’s locks reviewed as misdemeanor
The Jefferson County prosecuting attorney is reviewing an investigative file received Monday alleging possible criminal action by former County Judge Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV.
The Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners forwarded Monday its investigation into a complaint about last fall’s school board elections to the prosecutor after validating a complaint that Wilkins, apparently with the help of two others, changed locks on the county election commission’s office, which prevented commissioners from entering during election preparation stages.
The action appears to violate Ark. Code Ann. 7-1103(a)(20)(g), a Class A misdemeanor, according to a notice of final action dated May 1 and sent to the complainant, Jefferson County Republican Party Committee Chairman Peter Smykla.
That law prohibits interfering in any manner “with the officials lawfully conducting the election or the canvass or with the voters lawfully exercising their right to vote at the election.”
“The [Board of Election Commissioners] determined that preparing for an election is an essential component of conducting an election; therefore, the [board] is referring this matter to the local prosecutor’s office,” the notice reads.
Prosecutor Kyle Hunter said Monday he had just received the file and would likely make a decision whether to prosecute in the next couple of days.
Wilkins, a Democrat, pleaded guilty last week to taking more than $80,000 in bribes to vote for certain bills while he served in the Arkansas Legislature and is awaiting sentencing in federal court.
A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
During his tenure as county judge of Jefferson County, Wilkins frequently clashed with Jefferson County Election Commissioner Stu Soffer, a Republican. Each man spent several minutes Monday complaining about the other during separate phone interviews with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“The man had no regard for the law,” Soffer said.
Wilkins noted that Soffer resigned from the State Board of Election Commissioners earlier this year after a judge ruled he was ineligi-
ble to serve on both county and state election boards, which Soffer had been doing for years.
“In the meantime, he has tried to create havoc for me,” Wilkins said, accusing Soffer of retaliating against him because he had denied Soffer’s request for payment for some election work.
Soffer said Monday that he told Smykla about the issues on which Smykla filed a complaint with the state board. Wilkins said he believed that Soffer, who has filed numerous other complaints about Wilkins, used Smykla’s complaint to go after him.
Smykla did not return a message left for him Monday afternoon.
The state board’s investigative report said Wilkins changed the locks on the commission’s office and appeared to have help from Lloyd Franklin Jr., Wilkins’ chief of staff, and Efrem Elliott, the soon-to-be county election coordinator. Franklin is a former justice of the peace, and Elliott is a former state representative. Elliott was appointed coordinator in October, according to the Pine Bluff Commercial.
A county employee told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Elliott and Franklin no longer work for the county, and the Democrat-Gazette could not find them in various online telephone directories. Neither responded to Facebook messages sent to them Monday evening.
The complaint filed with the state board said the locks to the election commission’s office were changed at least three times, including once two days after they had been changed to allow commissioners access. The complaint stated that security cameras caught Wilkins, Franklin and a locksmith changing the locks.
Commissioners did not regain access to their offices until Sept. 1 and were unable to fully prepare for the Sept. 19 election, and a water leak that occurred during the lockout ruined 2,000 envelopes, the complaint said. Election commissioners could not secure election results because unauthorized employees, including Wilkins, retained keys to the secure areas where election results were kept, the complaint read.
The state board found records indicating the first lock change that prevented county election officials from accessing their offices was July 14. Through interviews, the state determined the locks were changed again Aug. 24 and again Aug. 26 and that election officials didn’t regain access to all of their offices until Sept. 1.
The state’s investigation, which was adopted by the board April 4, found that Wilkins appeared to have violated Ark. Code Ann. 7-5-301, which requires that county election commissioners retain “care and custody of all voting machines and all electronic vote tabulating devices while not in use.” But the investigation recommended only sending a “letter of instruction” to the county, given that Wilkins had resigned.
It was unclear Monday why the state reversed course and found a possible violation of a different statute.
The investigation also recommended sending an instruction letter to the new county judge, Booker T. Clemons, informing him that he is not authorized to appoint election officials, which investigators said there was “good reason to believe” Wilkins and an associate had done by trying to hire poll workers for the school election.
The state did not substantiate the third allegation contained in Smykla’s complaint, which was that the order of candidates had been changed on absentee ballots. The investigation found only that an error had been made on the ballots but was corrected before any were sent out to voters.
Commissioners did not regain access to their offices until Sept. 1 and were unable to fully prepare for the Sept. 19 election, and a water leak that occurred during the lockout ruined 2,000 envelopes, the complaint said.