Commentary: Election Official Reflected Honesty In All He Did

Election Commissioner Will Be Sorely Missed...

FILE PHOTO John Logan Burrow, who served as chairman of the Washington County Election Commission since 1995, oversees the counting of ballots in the 2010 general election at the Washington County Courthouse. Burrow died unexpectedly from a heart attack last week.

FILE PHOTO John Logan Burrow, who served as chairman of the Washington County Election Commission since 1995, oversees the counting of ballots in the 2010 general election at the Washington County Courthouse. Burrow died unexpectedly from a heart attack last week.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

John Logan Burrow's steady resolve to ensure an accurate vote count left little concern for newspaper deadlines. This drove me and my ilk to distraction in almost every election.

Of course, the most frustrating thing about Burrow's "it's done when it's done right" stance was there was no really good argument against it.

The chairman of the Washington County Election commission was a good Democrat and a completely scrupulous election official, living proof you could be both a good member of a party and and the most honorable of people.

I was one of the many people who was a friend of John, and I couldn't agree more with all the praise of him and what an honest broker he was for Washington County's elections. I do want to point out, though, Burrow was honest in everything he did. Elections were just where it mattered the most.

He was also a cultured, extremely well-read man with a deep appreciation of history. I think love and appreciation for history reinforced his innate, unshakable honesty as election commissioner. Together, those two factors formed that steady resolve to get things right. He saw himself more as a part of history than a part of politics. Politics worries about the outcome of elections, who wins and who loses. History worries about the uprightness of the process and the accuracy of the results in those elections, whoever wins.

The greatest sign of respect for the people a public servant can have is a belief in the sanctity of each and every vote cast. Burrow had that.

It would be wrong to give Burrow all the credit for the the outstanding way Washington County elections were conducted since he became commission chairman in 1995, but he set the tone. His unexpected death at home from a heart attack, months before decisive U.S. Senate and governor's races, is a heavy blow.

Running an election in a large county is no easy task. It's no slight on Benton and Pulaski counties to point out they've had troubles before. Those troubles show the bigger an election, the more things there are that can go wrong. Burrow didn't preside over elections in the biggest county in Arkansas -- just the biggest one with the longest record of running smoothly.

Burrow and the other members of the commission faced their toughest test in 2002. State Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, faced a strong re-election challenge from Republican Bootsie Ackerman. It was an incredibly close race, finally decided by a margin of 44 votes out of 21,672. Burrow and other commission members kept their cool while harshly criticized by some -- not the candidates -- for not being able to produce exactly the same tally in each of three recount tries. Those criticisms ignored the fact the biggest error amounted to 10 votes. By my math, that was an error rate of 0.046 percent -- less than 5 percent of 1 percent.

When it was all said and done, Bill Ackerman, the losing candidate's husband, spoke for everyone when he said, "I don't think anyone has questions on the integrity of the folks who handled the election. We just wanted to be sure of the results."

The integrity of the folks who handled the election was beyond doubt -- largely because they all did everything they could do to be sure of the results, whatever those results turned out to be. Do the right thing, and your reputation takes care of itself.

Asa Hutchinson, the candidate for governor, recently told a story that applies here. When he was in Congress, he expressed some doubt to a fellow member what they were doing would be judged well by history. The member, whom Hutchinson didn't name, replied: Don't worry about the judgment of history. Worry about the judgment of eternity.

That was good advice, but I think Burrow's public service will be remembered well by both.

Commentary on 03/16/2014