The Arkansas Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday advanced a bill aimed at establishing certain guidelines and requirements for counties removing electronic voting machines and relying on paper ballots marked and counted by hand over the objections of several opponents who said the bill would discourage paper ballots.
In a voice vote with Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, dissenting, the Senate committee endorsed Senate Bill 250 by Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton.
The bill would require a county that chooses to use paper ballots in place of approved voting machines to be responsible for the cost of the paper ballots, and any devices or machines required for the printing and tabulation of paper ballots.
It would require each paper ballot to be compatible with the electronic vote tabulation devices selected by the secretary of state law under Arkansas Code Annotated 7-5-301.
During all elections in counties that use paper ballots and in which those ballots are counted by hand, the ballots would be required to first be marked using permanent ink and be run through an electronic vote tabulation device before a hand count is conducted under SB250.
Lindsey French, legal counsel for Association of Arkansas Counties, told the Senate committee on Thursday that some quorum courts are being lobbied to go with paper ballots and this bill provides guidance to counties.
She said the association doesn't have a position on SB250, but she has received positive feedback from officials in counties about the bill.
In January, the Cleburne County Quorum Court voted to remove voting machines from elections, making it a paper ballot county. The decision means that votes must be hand counted in Cleburne County. At that time, officials with the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative Inc. said the vote was in response to a push by the leader of the group, retired U.S. Army Colonel Conrad Reynolds, for election computers to be removed from Arkansas elections.
Reynolds told the Senate committee on Thursday that he opposes SB250. Counties are screaming for paper ballots, he said.
"I believe that this system that we currently have is broken," Reynolds said. "I didn't believe that seven or eight months ago. ... But after the primary of last year, I started doing some deep digging. ... The system we have right now is not transparent. It is not accurate, and there is no accountability."
Reynolds, of Conway, lost his bids for the Republican nomination in the 2nd congressional district to U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock in May of 2022 and to Hill in 2014.
In December, Reynolds filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County circuit court against Secretary of State John Thurston, the state Board of Election Commissioners and Election Systems and Software (ES&S) aiming to prevent Arkansas from using specific voting machines in future elections.
But Hammer said Thursday that GOP state House candidate Trent Minner of Conway, who narrowly lost to state Rep. Steve Magie, D-Conway, in the Nov. 8 general election, publicly thanked the Faulkner County Election Commission and its staff and the Faulkner County clerk for their diligence and for promptly complying with Minner's request for a recount, and that Faulkner County and the state should be proud of their work.
"I don't know how Mr. Minner feels about this bill, but what he says in context is 'We ain't broke, don't fix us,' " Hammer said.
Minner is now an aide to Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
He said a Heritage Foundation official indicated Arkansas election procedures excel in two key areas, which are that its voting machines are never connected to the Internet and there is a paper trail that can be reviewed during an audit recount of which "we audit our elections."
Hammer said the Senate committee has endorsed legislation to authorize the state Board of Election Commissioners to audit election records in 15 counties every two years.
"We have got what we need to assure that the machines that we have are working properly," he said.
Hammer said a Heritage Foundation official indicated hand counts of paper ballots are not practical, particularly in urban areas, and counting ballots by hand will be more laborious and prone to human error and more difficult to do accurately and quickly.