BENTONVILLE — A weekend charter flight to Omaha, Neb., prompted some county officials to question the spending decisions of the Benton County Election Commission.
Chairman Bill Williams said the commission had been waiting for Election Systems and Software, the company that provides Benton County with its electronic voting and technical support, to deliver a software package needed to prepare voting machines for early voting that begins Monday. Williams said the company is apparently understaffed and struggling to meet deadlines.
At an Oct. 8 Election Commission meeting, Williams updated the other commissioners on the delays and said it might be necessary to charter a flight to Omaha to ensure the material was received by Oct. 9. Waiting for the next delivery date would have delayed the arrival of the materials until Oct. 12. Williams said having the package shipped by air would have cost $700 to $800, and the charter flight cost $1,100.
“The difference between shipping it by air and going to get it was $300 to $400,” Williams said. “But the crucial thing is it bought us two days to go up there and pick that stuff up. Right now, time is the key element. We can’t have the general election on Thursday. These things are like a series of standing dominos and the first one has to fall before the others can.”
Election Coordinator Amy Huston, who accompanied Williams on the flight, said the software has to be in the hands of election officials so the machines can be tested and their operation verified. The need to test the machines with the software made meeting the Oct. 9 deadline critical.
“If (the software) had been wrong, there wouldn’t have been enough time to get it right,” she said.
Richard McComas, Benton County’s comptroller, said he heard about the flight after the fact. He asked the commission to detail the necessity for the charter flight in writing so he could explain it to other county officials.
“We needed to know why they couldn’t take a commercial flight,” McComas said. “Chartering a flight is not our normal practice.”
Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said his first reaction was to question the need for a flight.
“The first question I have is ‘Why did they wait till the last minute?’” Allen said. “It certainly raises some eyebrows. I don’t like anybody chartering an airplane, especially in these days. They could get in a car and drive to Omaha, as far as I’m concerned.”
Allen said better communication, particularly in advance of a decision like this, would help.
“If I’m a taxpayer and I don’t know anything about what’s happening with the Election Commission or the Quorum Court, and I hear about something like this, I’m going to have some serious doubts about our government,” Allen said.
County Judge Dave Bisbee said the Election Commission is an independent commission, not subject to his direction. He said the Quorum Court appropriates money for the commission budget and the commission had money for travel in its budget.
Bisbee said the trip should highlight an even larger problem.
“Benton County used to have one of the best election systems in the country,” Bisbee said. “Then, because somebody in Florida couldn’t read a ballot because of a hanging chad or a butterfly ballot or whatever it was, the federal government outlawed punch cards. Now we’ve got one company trying to do this for most of the nation and they’re backed up. I’m still livid about the amount of money we’re wasting.”
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AT A GLANCE
Airplane Charter
The Benton County Election Commission chartered an airplane from Summit Aviation in Bentonville on Oct. 9 for a round trip to Omaha, Neb., to pick up election material. The commission was charged $1,100 for the trip.
Source: Benton County