ELECTION COMMISSION: Officials Tough To Move

POLITICAL, PERSONAL DIFFERENCES NOT ENOUGH TO OUST MEMBERS

— While they are political appointees, political, philosophical or personal disagreements aren’t reason enough to remove members of a county election commission from their seats on the panel.

Members of county election commissions are appointed to three-year terms and will serve out those terms unless they fail to meet the basic qualifications for holding office, according to information from Tim Humphries with the Secretary of State’s Office.

“There is no specific provision for removing a member of an election commission,” said Humphries. “They are selected by the parties, by the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic parties, with a third member chosen by the chairman of the majority party. They are appointed to terms of three years and as long as they remain eligible, I don’t know of any way they can be removed.”

AT A GLANCE

Commissioner Rules

County election commissioners:

Shall be qualified electors of this state.

Shall be able to read and write the English language.

Shall not have been found guilty, pleaded guilty or nolo contendere to the violation of any election law of this state.

Shall not be a candidate for any office.

Shall be residents of the county in which they serve.

Shall not be a paid employee of any political party or candidate on the county’s ballot.

Shall not participate in any campaign, although making a financial contribution is not considered participating in a campaign.

Shall not be employed by any company doing business with the commission.

Shall not be married or closely related to any candidate.

Source: Arkansas Code 7-4-109

Humphries said anyone who challenges an individual’s qualifications can take information they have to the county’s prosecuting attorney, who will determine whether the complaint is valid.

E.J. Miller, a member of the Benton County Election Commission, was removed as chairman by a vote of the commission Sept. 3. Bill Williams, who replaced Miller as chairman, said later a controversy over election fees charged to Avoca and the county’s budget process raised concerns about Miller’s ability to serve effectively as chairman.

Miller asked Williams to step down last week and said Tuesday he thinks Williams should resign from the commission outright.

“When I was removed they said it was because I didn’t have any budget experience and because of the ‘debacle’ with the Avoca billing,” Miller said. “Don’t we have an even bigger debacle now with the airplane ride, with the Siloam Springs billing question that has never been voted on? Don’t we have an even bigger problem with the budget that has never been approved by the commission, a budget that includes iPhones or Blackberries for the staff? Those aren’t just communications devices for election night, as it was put to us. Aren’t those things a much more huge debacle than what they removed me for?”

Miller said the commission has waited since August for resolution to a billing complaint on the Siloam Springs special election, but nothing has been done under Williams. Miller said the commission has not been presented with a final budget for 2011. Miller said he is worried a proposal to do exit interviews at polling places has not been handled properly. He said Williams’ proposal to end election night voting updates is another example of questionable leadership.

“I believe he is doing a disservice to the voters of Benton County and the taxpayers of Benton County,” Miller said.

Williams said he has no plans to resign and would prefer to spend his time working on the November general election and other commission-related issues.

“We have a more important job to do than to trade insults and I’m not going to do that — trade insults,” Williams said.

Officials with the two major political parties in Benton County agreed the commissioners now on the job can’t be removed over any of the issues the commission is involved in. Both Republicans and Democrats said they want the practice of election night updates to continue and hope a vote of all three commissioners might preserve that tradition.

“We, the political parties, have no vote on the election commission,” Mike Sevak, chairman of the Benton County Republican Party Central Committee said Tuesday. “They (the commissioners) can vote to remove the current chairman, but they cannot vote to have him removed from the commission.”

Sevak said the election night updates shouldn’t be discontinued.

“Why should we change the process of how interim results are released?” he asked. “And why are we waiting until the general election to do that? People know that when they see numbers on a TV screen those numbers are not official. Nothing is official until the vote is certified 10 days later. Accuracy is what everybody wants and with the technology we have in Benton County I don’t see why we can’t continue to do things the way we have in the past.”

Vivian Michaels, vice chairwoman of the Benton County Democratic Party Central Committee, said she also wants to see the election night updates continue and she thinks Williams and Miller should work together on the election and put any other issues aside.

“We elected those people and right now I am not sure what the heck they are doing,” Michaels said. “I think E.J. is very good. E.J. is a detail man. Williams is more of a concept man. We need them both.”

Williams said the commission staff is still working out scheduling issues but a special commission meeting before the election to consider the voting update question remains possible.

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