County Election Commission looking to overhaul voting process

County Election Commission looking to overhaul voting process

New equipment, shift to ‘ voting centers’ on the horizon

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County will partner with the state to purchase new voting equipment for all 24 current polling sites, but may experiment with reducing the number of polling sites in favor of vote centers where any resident can cast their vote regardless of where they live in the county.

Election Commission member Frank Barton told the Quorum Court that the state is offering to pay 50 percent of the cost to replace the county’s voting equipment.

The county has 88 voting machines but the equipment is now ten years old.

“Right now the Secretary of State has a proposal where they will share 50 percent of the cost with the county,” Barton said. “This is a one-time offer and there are limited funds available. Crittenden County is on the list to get new equipment, but there are other counties that can get that money too.”

The cost to replace the voting equipment in all 24 polling locations is $573,246. The state will pay $287,816 of that leaving the county to shoulder the remaining $285,429.

The Election Commission also presented the county with another proposal which would cut the number of polling sites from 24 to 12. Each location would be a vote center which would allow residents to vote at any of those sites rather than poll specific sites based on where they are registered.

“A vote center is kind of like early voting,” Barton said. “You can go to any of these 12 vote centers anywhere in the county and vote. If you live in Marion and are going to be in West Memphis, you can go to a vote center in West Memphis and vote.

Reducing the polling site from 24 to 12 would save the county $98,980 in equipment costs. The state’s share would go from $287,000 to $188,826 and the county would see its share decrease from $285,000 to $186,449.

“We know by doing this it will save the county just under $100,000 in equipment costs by going to vote centers,” Barton said.

Several justices expressed concerns, however, that shutting down polling sites would actually reduce voter turnout in the rural parts of the county.

“I know in Gilmore everyone walks to the polls,” Robertson said. “So when you get out into the rural areas like Anthonyville, Edmondson, Turrell and Gilmore, are we going to be disenfranchising voters by doing this? The one thing you don’t want to do is cause any inconvenience on the voters. We already have a low voter turnout.

And if you make it any more difficult for them to vote, then you are going to further decrease it.”

Justice Hubert Bass was even more blunt, calling voter centers a Republican plan to deliberately depress voter turnout.

“I am not going to support anything that is going to reduce voting sites,” Bass said. “Obviously this is politics. It’s a Republican type policy for voter suppression. I see it on CNN. They are lawsuits all over the county. It’s the same thing from a Republican led election commission and a Republican Secretary of State. We don’t want your voter suppression.”

Election Commission chairwoman Dixie Carlson said counties that have gone to vote centers have seen higher turnouts.

“Early voting is already like a vote center,” Carlson said. “And they come from the same places that you are talking about. And the counties that have done the vote centers have a better turnout than they did when they had polling sites.”

Twelve counties in Arkansas have gone to vote centers: Benton, Boone, Clark, Columbia, Faulkner, Garland, Miller, Montgomery, Saline, Sebastian, Washington, and Yell.

County Judge Woody Wheeless said he was told by an official in Faulkner County that they saw an increase in voter turnout.

“She told me that they had more people vote because of the convenience,” Wheeless

said.

The proposed voter center sites would be located at Midway Water Association/ Hart Tire and Bonds Marine for voters who live in the south part of the county; WR Golden for voters in the northern part of the county; Civic Center, West Memphis High School, Pearcy Auto sales, 7th Street Church of Christ, and 1st Baptist Church in West Memphis; Marion Immanuel and Marion Church of God; and vote centers in Crawfordsville and Earle City Hall.

Robertson asked for an explanation of how the sites were selected.

“How did you determine the locations?” Robertson said.

Barton said the election commission looked at several aspects ranging from the number of voters, turnout, geography, and the capacity of the current polling sites such as parking, room inside, and accessibility.

“Places that had low utilization was certainly something that was prime for moving to another location,” Barton said. “Having less people vote is not our goal. We want more people to vote. We want to make it as accessible as we can while being pragmatic about how we spend the county’s money.”

Election Coordinator Amelia Stuckey added that the sites are not set in stone.

“It can be 15. It can be 18.

It can be 24,” Stuckey said.

“Each of these polling sites are less than 10 miles from a vote center.”

Justice Stacy Allen questioned the logic of locating a vote center at Pearcy Auto sales.

“How did Pearcy make the list?” Allen asked. “That’s a pawn shop and a dealership. Pearcy is really out of the way from the neighborhood. The reason I don’t like it is because it would become a safety hazard for residents and you would have to have police out there to direct traffic with people crossing the highway.

The homework wasn’t

done on that one.”

Robertson expressed concerns about a lack of a polling center on the southeast side of West Memphis. “Not a one,” Robertson said. “You are closing down four polling places on the south side of West Memphis.”

“We tried,” Barton said.

“We reached out to 14th Street Church. But they said no.”

Robertson also questioned why they did away with the polling sites located at schools.

“What’s the problem with using them?” Robertson asked.

Barton said the schools do not want polling places in their buildings.

“If you talk to the principals at the schools that served in the past, they would tell you that they would prefer it not being there. Wonder Junior High is congested. The only reason why West Memphis High School works is because on election day we are in the event center away from the rest of the student population.”

James Pulliaum, a West Memphis City Councilman who has worked elections since the late 1970s, said he is in favor of vote centers because it would cut down confusion on where voters need to go to cast their vote.

“I welcome them,” Pulliaum said. “ I see an increase because people won’t get confused and go to the wrong place then not vote. To me. It’s worth a try to see how it is going to go.”

Bass asked why all 24 sites couldn’t be vote centers.

“What would be the problem? More money?” Bass asked.

Barton said the county would need more voting machines which cost about $5,000 apiece which the state will not pay for.

“If all 24 places were to be vote center it would require more equipment than we normally do at the polls,” Barton said. “You may have more people show up at West Memphis at the high school who normally don’t vote there and you would have to have more poll workers which is an expense. And the state is telling us we need a certain number of machines.”

The Quorum Court voted to move forward with purchasing the equipment for all 24 polling locations and possibly test a vote center in a future election.

“The money the state allocated isn’t going to change,” Wheeless said. “If we go with the recommendation of the election commission, we would just need less.”

By Mark Randall