Inquiry urged on vote cast illegally

Case centers on provisional ballot

Pulaski County’s election commission has asked the prosecuting attorney to investigate an incident in which a Little Rock man who wasn’t registered to vote inserted his provisional ballot into a voting machine, causing it to be counted.

The episode, which took place during a special primary runoff in February, contributed to a tied race between House District 34 candidates Joy Springer and Ryan Davis. The tie was ultimately resolved by one absentee vote mailed from Sweden, giving Springer the victory.

County election board members signed off Friday on a memo urging Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley to look into the balloting issue and “take appropriate action to enforce the election laws of the State,” the document says.

The move comes after months of discussion at election board meetings. Commission chairwoman Evelyn Gomez said in an email Tuesday that the matter is important to pursue “because of fairness.”

“One of the single most important things we can do as an election commission is ensure honest, fair, free elections for the people,” Gomez, who is a Republican appointee, wrote. “Because every vote counts, it is fundamental[ly] unfair to qualified electors to dilute their vote (their voice) by allowing illegal votes to be cast.”

According to the memo, a man arrived to vote at a polling place at Saint Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock on the morning of Feb. 11, but poll workers couldn’t find him in the poll book or in the county’s registered voter database.

Under those circum

stances, an Arkansan is allowed to complete a form and fill out a provisional ballot, which is supposed to be sealed in an envelope for later review, according to procedures outlined in state elections law. Instead, after filling out the form, the man marked his ballot and fed it into a vote-counting machine, the memo said.

The man’s intent when he inserted the ballot, as well as poll workers’ role in the event, has not been clear from discussions at public meetings. Poll workers did not prevent him from inserting his ballot, the memo said — some were busy with other voters, and one did not know a provisional ballot had been issued.

The man is named in the memo, but the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is not naming him because he has not been charged with a crime. He didn’t answer calls at a number listed for him.

In its standard review of provisional ballots the following day, clerk’s office staff members determined that the man wasn’t registered to vote in the state, “and therefore the ballot that he inserted into the ballot scanner was invalid and his act of doing so was in violation of the law,” election commissioners wrote.

Citing parts of A.C.A. 7-1104, which outlines election felony charges, commissioners requested the prosecutor’s office explore the matter. They included several supporting documents, such as a list of election officials working at the polling site.

The incident earned the ire of Springer, who questioned commissioners about the election’s handling, reports said. One change that Pulaski County election commissioners have enacted since: provisional ballots will be marked going forward so the same situation can’t happen again.

Poll workers are trained not to insert provisional ballots into machines, Pulaski County elections director Bryan Poe said.

A representative from the prosecutor’s office did not immediately return a message requesting comment on the memo. Election commissioner Joshua Price, the board’s Democratic appointee, also did not respond to a message.

What happened “clearly made our task quite a bit more difficult than it needed to be,” Poe said at a March 9 meeting. “And obviously we do not approve of anybody casting illegal ballots.”

As well as taking place during a closely contested election, the episode took place in a year when election officials nationwide have been on tenterhooks about errors and mishaps because of the impending vote for the presidency, and new challenges at the polls because of the global coronavirus outbreak.

Generally, voter fraud remains rare in the U.S. and in Arkansas, according to one database compiled by Arizona State University researchers. It’s count found just six reported instances in the state between 2000 and 2012, and five of those six concerned campaign officials, not voters.

VIRUS AND THE VOTE

Election overseers in Arkansas’ most populous county continue to refine plans concerning voter safety for the general election during the pandemic.

Recently the Arkansas secretary of state’s office asked the county to complete a worksheet outlining needed personal protective equipment and other supplies for Pulaski County poll workers.

The county proposes the state office supply 1,110 face shields, 3,330 KN95 masks, 472 table-top shields and 416 cans of disinfecting spray, among other things, according to the finished worksheet.

And some poll workers are reluctant. About 150 of 474 who have responded to a survey have said they’re not willing to work at the polls in person during this cycle, but more are open to helping process absentee votes, Poe said last week.

In discussions, commissioners reiterated that poll workers, but not voters, will be required to wear masks during November’s election.

“I want to make sure that voters know that it is safe to come to the polls to vote,” said commissioner Kristi McKinnon Stahr, a Republican appointee.

Board members also approved plans to assist in processing absentee ballots and a draft plan to add several vote center sites.

Under the plan, early voting sites will remain open on Election Day, in addition to the usual precinct sites. (The county’s elections staff has recommended against consolidating polling places this year.)

The vote center initiative, if used, must first receive approval from the Quorum Court.