ARKANSAS OFFICIAL assures steps being taken to safeguard state primary.

Arkansas’ top election official, Secretary of State John Thurston, attempted Tuesday to inspire confidence in the state’s upcoming presidential primary, in response to the breakdown in the reporting process used to announce the results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses.

Thurston, a Republican in his first term, issued a statement Tuesday afternoon assuring voters of “transparency and accountability” in Arkansas’ elections scheduled for March 3. Early voting starts Feb. 18.

His office also detailed steps being taken to ensure no hiccups in the election, such as equipment training for county election officials that Thurston said was conducted Tuesday.

In separate interviews, the leaders of the state’s Republican and Democratic parties said they were confident that the primary results would be reported quickly and accurately.

“Our primary election is run by government and election officials, not the political parties, and the process is bound by extensive legal requirements,” Thurston’s office said in a statement. “Ar

kansans can rest assured that we will have a secure election process in Arkansas. With the new equipment that a majority of counties in Arkansas have, we will be able to get election results much quicker.”

Fifty-four of Arkansas’ 75 counties had updated equipment by the November 2018 general election. Another 10 are expected to have new equipment this year. The secretary of state’s office purchases the equipment, and the costs are shared between the state and county.

Primaries like those held in Arkansas are used by most states to pick party nominees. Only a handful of states and territories, including Iowa, hold caucuses, which are large gatherings run by political parties where it can take several hours to finish the voting process.

While the Iowa caucuses focused on picking presidential candidates, the Arkansas election will have broader slates of candidates: legislators, some county and school officials, and judicial positions ranging from the state Supreme Court to district judge. Two types of elections will be held March 3: Republican and Democratic party primaries, and nonpartisan general elections for judicial and school board candidates. The parties’ nominees will then face each other in the Nov. 3 general election.

In Arkansas, county elections officials tabulate their own results and then upload them to a secure website used by the secretary of state’s office to transmit the results to the public, said spokesman Chris Powell. The secretary of state’s office has contracted with an elections software company, Scytl Secure Electronic Voting, to transmit results for the past four elections cycles.

“We have always had good and efficient results,” said Doyle Webb, the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas for the past 12 years.

Webb’s counterpart at the Democratic Party of Arkansas, Chairman Michael John Gray, also said he had faith in the secretary of state’s office to gather the results. However, Gray did express concerns about the number of polling places in the state, saying that he had recently been informed that his own polling location in Augusta would be closed due to a lack of resources.

“I’m sure worried that not everybody is going to have the opportunity to vote as easily as they should have,” Gray said.

Powell said the secretary of state’s office did not keep track of the number of polling sites that have been closed, saying that such decisions are made at the county level.

Some counties have begun using voting centers, which reduce the number of polling places that are needed. Voting centers save money by reducing how much equipment is needed, but a criticism is that having fewer polling places makes it more difficult for some people to get to one.