Bentonville School Board election draws complaints

BELLA VISTA -- Friction between the two sides in Tuesday's Bentonville School Board race generated several complaints regarding conduct at the polling site, according to Benton County election coordinator Kim Dennison.

Supporters of both candidates -- Rebecca Powers and Eowyn Francis-Moore -- were present most of the day at Bella Vista Christian Church, the one polling place that was open for the Zone 1 race. Zone 1 covers parts of Bella Vista and Centerton.

The Benton County Election Commission received phone calls from both sides "all day long," Dennison said. Dennison also received three written complaints via email. It was the most tension she's ever seen at a polling place in her three years on the job, she said.

"We heard what they were saying, fixed the problem and moved on. If there even was a problem," Dennison said.

She dispatched one of her staff members to the polling site around noon to make sure everything was under control. That employee spent four or five hours there, she said.

Amy Snyder, the polling site sheriff, said mid-afternoon Tuesday she had to instruct supporters of both candidates on the rules regarding polling site behavior.

Dennison reviewed the complaints with election commissioners late Tuesday after votes had been counted.

"We found nothing to be violating election laws," Dennison said.

Powers, a board member since 2012, won re-election Tuesday with 82.8 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. Francis-Moore was making her first bid for an elected office.

Complaints from Francis-Moore's supporters focused mainly on Jacky Littlefield, a Powers supporter who was a registered poll watcher at the site. Poll watchers are volunteers who may or may not be affiliated with a candidate for office. They may challenge a voter on the basis that person already has voted or is not eligible to vote in a particular precinct.

Littlefield said he felt harassed by Francis-Moore's supporters, some of whom were sitting at the edge of the road outside the church holding Francis-Moore signs, occasionally snapping pictures of him.

"It's really getting to me," he said, while standing outside the church.

One complaint against Littlefield concerned a Powers campaign sign in his pickup. The truck was measured to be a little less than 100 feet from the polling site door; electioneering is prohibited within a 100-foot radius.

Littlefield said he removed the sign immediately upon being notified of the problem.

David Oliver, 57, of Bella Vista complained in an email to Dennison about Littlefield questioning him about how he had voted as Oliver was leaving the polling site.

"I was taken back and did not appreciate him confronting me and who I voted for," Oliver wrote. "This is a personal, private matter that I don't care to discuss with a stranger. I thought that this was illegal and that people who are supporting or campaigning are supposed to be a certain distance from voting polls."

Littlefield was conducting his exit poll outside the voting room, and people were free to answer him or not, Dennison said.

"We asked him to make sure, when he was asking voters coming out, that no one was coming in to vote at the same time," Dennison said.

Amy Gillespie and Gretchen Bellamy, supporters of Francis-Moore, spent most of Tuesday at the polling site.

"Constant vigilance was required," Gillespie said. "Most of our complaints were just making sure, as a poll watcher, (Littlefield) was following approved poll watcher behavior."

Littlefield said he saw people wearing T-shirts bearing Francis-Moore's name enter the area where electioneering is prohibited. Gillespie and Bellamy were wearing those shirts, but Gillespie denied Littlefield's claim.

"We were extremely cautious about that," Gillespie said. "We knew as much as we were watching (Littlefield), he was watching us."

NW News on 09/17/2015