The number of paper ballots cast Tuesday in four Carroll County precincts didn’t match the number of voters who’d signed in.
As a result, the county’s election commission planned to audit some of the ballots in those precincts today. The election commissioners’ audit is unlikely to change the outcome of any races.
Joanna Schuster, Carroll County’s election coordinator, said the discrepancy appeared to involve fewer than 40 ballots cast at two polling places: the Berryville Community Center and St. Elizabeth Parish Center in Eureka Springs.
Schuster said people who come in to vote sign a “polling book,” then a poll worker enters the name in a “list of electors” and gives them a ballot to fill out.
“We have a list of electors,” said Schuster. “That’s everybody who’s gotten a ballot. … Our number of ballots should match that. If it’s more than one or two off you want to know what’s happening.”
The discrepancies involved Kings River, Prairies, Cabanal and Eureka Springs precincts, said Schuster. In each of those precincts, there were more names on the list of electors than there were ballots cast.
State Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, said the problem could involve more than 40 ballots.
King noted that in Carroll County’s SW/SE Hickory precinct, only 10 people voted in the Republican primary race for state House District 98, according to election results on the Secretary of State’s website. But the list of electors indicates 64 people signed in to vote in the Republican primary in that precinct.
King also noted that an identical name was listed on the county’s list of electors for the Democratic and Republican primary elections.
“From what I got this afternoon, it appears to me several people’s votes didn’t get counted because there are many more signatures than there were votes,” King said late Wednesday.
Schuster said election commissioners spent hours Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning trying to figure out what happened, then decided to do an audit later when they were less frazzled.
Schuster, who became election coordinator in January, said there was a discrepancy of nine ballots in Kings River precinct, where she lives.
The problem could have something to do with provisional or “spoiled” ballots, she said. There are separate sign-in sheets for provisional and spoiled ballots, and voters names may have been put on the wrong sign-in list.
“If they got signed in on the regular list of electors instead of the provisional ballot list, that could throw off our numbers,” she said.
Provisional ballots are issued to people who forget to bring a legal form of voter identification. In that case, they’re allowed to vote, but their ballot is set aside until they return with identification. The deadline for them to return with identification is noon on the Tuesday after the election, she said.
Ballots are spoiled, for instance, when voters request one type of ballot, then say they made a mistake and ask for another type of ballot, said Schuster. When a voter is issued a subsequent ballot, the initial one is marked as spoiled.
Schuster said she didn’t know if Arkansas’ new voter identification law had exacerbated the problem.
“We just want it to be accurate,” she said.
Under the voter identification law, voters must provide state or federal photo identification, such as a driver’s license, military or college ID, or passport.
Johnice Dominick of Green Forest, one of the Carroll County election commissioners, said election night dragged on to about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, when she and other commissioners left the courthouse in Berryville.
“We don’t certify until 10 days later anyway,” said Dominick. “We have unofficial results. They’re just very, very unofficial.”
Bob Grudek, who has been sheriff of Carroll County for the past eight years, appeared to have won re-election Tuesday by 76 votes over Republican primary challenger Jack R. Gentry Jr., a resource officer at Harrison High School.
“I don’t know if it’s official yet,” said Grudek, 71, who was winded from uprooting campaign signs Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t know if there will be enough there to make a difference,” he said, referring to the 40 ballots in question.
Ron McNair, an Alpena auto mechanic, said he wasn’t sure if he’d won his race against Jeff Boggs of Green Forest for state House District 98. McNair led by 79 votes with all precincts reporting. Then he heard there were sßme problems in Carroll County.
Schuster said only one of the four precincts, King River, will be audited which is in District 98. Since the audit only involves a discrepancy of nine ballots in that precinct, it shouldn’t change the outcome of the state House election, she said.
Metro on 05/22/2014