State Board Condemns Searcy County Election Officials After Heated Hearing

Background on the Reprimands

The State Board of Election Commissioners has taken formal action against Searcy County election commissioners for violations discovered during last year’s elections. This marks a significant moment, as Searcy County was the first in Arkansas to return to using hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots, which is seen as a step toward ensuring election integrity.

The board initially sought to decertify all three members of the Searcy County Board of Election Commissioners for 14 years due to alleged violations of Arkansas election law. These allegations included four specific instances where the board claimed the commissioners had broken the rules.

The Hearing and Findings

At a hearing held recently, the board reviewed the claims and found insufficient evidence for two of the alleged violations. However, it upheld the other two. The most notable issue involved a $100 payment made by the commission to an organization for videography services during the election. The commission stated that this payment was intended to promote transparency.

Under Arkansas law, election commissions are not allowed to accept gifts. The State Board argued that the $100 payment was too low to be considered a legitimate service and thus constituted an illegal gift. State Election Commissioner J. Harmon Smith emphasized the importance of this issue, stating, “It’s a bad precedent to accept that as a gift.” He added, “If a political party offered to give that service as a gift, that wouldn’t look good.”

Defense from the County Commissioners

L.C. Ratchford, a Democratic Searcy County election commissioner, defended the decision to make the payment. He explained that the county operates with a small budget and that the money used came from taxpayers. “We’re a small county, small budget. This is the taxpayer’s money. We made a decision, unanimous decision, to rent this equipment rather than buy it to save the taxpayers money,” Ratchford told KATV.

He expressed confusion over the board’s reaction, saying, “I don’t know why they’re so mad at us. I don’t know if it were paper ballots or what. The facts were there. They chose to ignore the facts to persecute us.”

Additional Violation and Legal Representation

The second upheld violation involved the county's failure to update its posted list of election officials. Although the county had posted a list as required by Arkansas law eight days before the election, it was faulted for not updating the list with replacement names when some officials failed to show up.

Clint Lancaster, who represented the Searcy County commissioners at the hearing and also serves as an attorney for the organization that provided the videography services, stated, “My clients’ position here is that it doesn’t seem like whatever they do will make this board happy. They tried, they’ve done what you’ve asked, and they called, they’ve got guidance and they’re still here.”

Final Decision and Reactions

At closing, the board’s legal counsel, Waylan Cooper, requested full decertification of the commissioners. “We ask the board to determine today that these violations of election law occurred and that the board issue a sanction to the [Searcy County] CBEC of a letter of reprimand and a decertification for seven federal election cycles—14 years,” he said.

However, the board opted not to decertify the commissioners, instead issuing written reprimands. Laurie Gross, one of Searcy County's two Republican election commissioners, noted that the board had not heard the full case earlier. “Today at the hearing, they heard the full case,” she said. Gross also emphasized the challenges faced by election workers, stating, “Election workers give a lot of their time and a lot of their energy for very minimum pay. It’s a community service. It’s people who care about their community.”

Broader Implications

SBEC Director Chris Madison acknowledged the complexity of the outcome, stating, “The fact that we got some different decisions following the hearing just shows how the system works.” He admitted that the process can be messy and difficult but concluded, “That’s how it works, and we got to what I think is a solid, good decision.”

Searcy County commissioners still have the option to appeal the reprimands in circuit court if they choose to do so.