This morning, voting day, I became curious how this new rule of no paper ballots had come about. Who made this decision? I called the Arkansas Secretary of State, and was put through to Brandon Newell in the Elections Division. He told me that the decision would have been made by the Carroll County Quorum Court. He also said it was odd that I could use paper in the last election but not this one, and that this must mean that they had recently passed a resolution to make a change.
I called the Quorum Court. The woman who answered the phone and opted not to give me her name, said the decision to do away with the paper ballots on Election Day was made by the Carroll County Election Commission. After telling her that I was told by the Secretary of State’s office that the decision would have been made by the Quorum Court, she put me through to the Election Commission’s Chairman, David Hoover.
Hoover told me that the decision to not have paper ballots on Election Day was made by the Election Commission. I told him that this was what I had also been told by the Quorum Court office, but that the Secretary of State had informed me that the Quorum Court would have made that ruling. He assured me that the decision had been made by the Election Commission and not the Quorum Court.
I then called Newell back and told him what I had found. He said this was not the way it’s required to occur according to Arkansas Election law code Title 7, Chapter 5, Section 30 c-1 which states:
The quorum court of each county shall choose by resolution a voting system containing voting machines or electronic vote tabulating devices, or both, or voting machines in combination with paper ballots counted by hand for use in all elections in the county.
He suggested I contact the State Board of Elections. I did, and there I spoke with Tena Arnold, who agreed the law states that decisions about voting methods for each county is the Quorum Courts’ responsibility. Each county had to make a decision in 2006 about which voting methods they would use.
Once that decision was made, any changes would need to occur by a resolution in the Quorum Court. In 2006, Carroll County’s Quorum Court had decided to go with a “central tabulation vote,” which includes the use of paper ballots.
Arnold then put Daniel Schultz – legal counsel for the State Board of Elections on the phone. He confirmed everything Arnold told me, and said that if the Quorum Court had not passed a resolution to change the county’s voting system, there should paper ballots available on voting day.
When I then went to vote, I asked for a paper ballot and was told there were none. I asked why and was told to speak with the Poll Captain, Albena Link. When I asked Link why there were no paper ballots available she said that the Election Commission had decided this, however, she then said that Jamie Correia, the Carroll County Clerk, had made the decision, and that the Election Commission had voted against it. I asked Link if she was certain. She told me she was at the meeting where this occurred and that it was open to the public. I asked if she was saying that Correia has the ability to override the Election Commission, and she said yes.
Correia, when reached by phone said this was absolutely not correct; that she only has authority over early voting. She said the election commission had made the decision to do away with paper ballots on Election Day, and she had no say in that matter. Correia also told me that the Election Commission has the legal authority to make that decision.
I spoke once again with the Quorum Count office and with Hoover and they both verified for me that no resolution had been passed by the Quorum Court to change the voting methods for voting day.
Schultz informed me that I could file a complaint on the Arkansas State Board of Elections Commissions’ website which would likely result in Carroll County officials being informed of their error.
Link told me at 3:30 p.m. there had been 40 people who had filled out complaints, most about no paper ballots.