Paper ballots, divided by type, are ready for poll workers on shelves in Searcy County on Oct. 30, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Independence County voters Tuesday night approved an ordinance that will require elections be conducted with hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.
According to complete but unofficial results, 8,309 county residents voted for the ordinance and 5,184 voted against it.
Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative (AVII) CEO Conrad Reynolds has long supported a shift from using electronic voting machines to only using paper ballots, and said Tuesday’s results showed voters “have spoken loud and clear” on the matter. Reynolds called on state leaders “to heed the will of the people” in a press release.
“I implore Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to listen to the people of Arkansas and act to remove voting machines from our state,” he said. “The people have expressed their preference for secure, transparent elections, and it’s time we honor that by transitioning fully to paper ballots.”
The Hand Marked, Hand Counted Paper Ballot Ordinance of 2024 requires elections be counted by hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots, except for people with disabilities who may continue using a voting machine.
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Lawyer Clint Lancaster, who also represents AVII, filed a lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs in nine Arkansas counties after county clerks did not certify the proposed measure for the 2024 ballot. Judges dismissed the cases in Conway, Johnson, Perry, Saline, Sharp and Van Buren counties. No ruling has been made in the White County lawsuit.
Meanwhile, cases in Cleburne and Independence counties were appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court. The initiative appeared on the ballot in Independence County after the state’s high court on Oct. 17 affirmed a circuit court order directing the county clerk to certify the measure as sufficient.
Bryan Norris, a plaintiff in the Independence County case and lead petitioner for the ballot initiative, told the Advocate Wednesday that while it was a contentious issue, ordinance supporters are willing to work with people who opposed the measure as they transition to the new system.
“We love you all, we’re all neighbors, we’re brothers, we’re sisters and most importantly we’re all patriotic Americans who care deeply about our community and country,” Norris said. “And this was just about creating a more transparent process and building a better future for us all.”
To the other eight counties with petitions “that were denied the chance to have their voices heard,” Norris said he’s willing to help them qualify for the ballot next time. Norris’ goal is to ensure any county that wants paper ballot elections to have them, he said.
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The Cleburne County Quorum Court approved a resolution to switch to paper ballots in January 2023 but later reversed the decision.
Searcy County is the only one of Arkansas’ 75 counties that currently hand-counts ballots. A State Board of Election Commissioners audit into Searcy County’s handling of the 2024 primary elections found inaccuracies in its hand-counting processes.
Supporters of switching from electronic voting machines to hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots often cite concerns about election integrity. Studies have shown that ballot scanning machines are more accurate than hand counts, including a 2018 study co-authored by the director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab and a separate study from the early 2000s.
As the debate over electronic voting machines and hand-marked paper ballots has gained traction in recent years, State Board of Election Commission officials, as well as Saline and Garland county officials, have defended the security and integrity of using voting machines to conduct elections.
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State lawmakers have also weighed in, including Sen. Ken Hammer, R-Benton, who sponsored Act 350 of 2023, which requires counties that switch to paper ballots to pay the associated costs themselves.
“Don’t you think that’s pretty sad that the state is going to punish us for deciding to go a way that they don’t want us to go,” Norris said. “They’ll pay for the machines, but how dare we decide to do a different process…I think that’s inappropriate and I think that’s egregious of Mr. Hammer to be doing that.”
Norris argued that using paper ballots would be cheaper than electronic voting machines, which have additional costs like software updates and maintenance. Meanwhile, Independence County Judge Kevin Jeffery, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, said changing to paper ballots would be “very costly” in a social media post last month.
“The reason for this is the process is labor intensive and every voter in our county would require ballots in every polling station for every election,” Jeffery wrote. “In other words, even if a voter doesn’t vote, the ballot has to be in place and ready for the voter. Counting ballots by hand would also be labor intensive and require many man hours to complete.”
A message left with Independence County Election Commission Chair Lea Barber about estimated costs for switching to paper ballots was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.
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