Committee gives new vote centers seven thumbs up

The Garland County Quorum Court's Finance Committee responded positively Monday night to the county election commission's proposal to transform election day voting.

The seven justices of the peace in attendance said they would be inclined to support the vote center model when it goes before the full quorum court. It has to adopt a resolution before the Garland County Election Commission can transition the county to the system, which untethers voters from assigned polling locations.

"I wanted to feel you out and see what you thought about it before we spend a lot of time and effort," election commission Chairman Gene Haley told the JPs. "I wanted to make sure you were on board with it."

Enabled by 2013 legislation, vote centers are election day polling places where voters from all county precincts can cast ballots, similar to the three locations all Garland county voters use during early voting. It relieves election officials from assigning voters to polling places based on precinct and requires fewer polling sites and poll workers.

The Boone County Election Commission in north Arkansas used vote centers last year.

The proposal presented Monday night reduces the county's election day polling places from 24 to 10 and estimates $9,670 in savings from paying fewer poll workers, renting fewer voting locations and spending less in mileage reimbursements for chief judges who bring vote totals to the county election building on election night.

"We can save some money, but that's not the real reason for doing this," Haley told the JPs. "The real reason for doing this is to comply with the law and solve all the issues with long lines and reporting."

Election officials could concentrate the county's approximately 50 Ivotronic electronic voting machines in fewer locations, Haley said, improving voter flow and curtailing long lines voters experienced during last year's elections.

"Each of those locations would have a larger number of electronic machines, so hopefully lines would be moving faster," Justice of the Peace Matt McKee said, explaining the process to the other JPs.

Justice of the Peace Denise Marion asked how vote centers would address reports of voters who received incorrect ballots during last year's elections, a problem she said could be compounded by having all the county's ballot styles at one location.

Haley said depending on which candidates are up for election, vote centers could have as many as 43 different ballot styles. The current procedure requires poll workers to give voters a slip with the alphanumeric designation for their precinct.

Voters give the slip to another poll worker, who cues up the precinct's electronic ballot on the Ivotronic machine or hands them the corresponding paper ballot.

"How will that be improved if there are 40 ballot styles at each voting station?" Marion asked Haley, referencing the reports of voters who received incorrect ballots.

Haley said fewer locations allow the election commission to rely less on inexperienced workers, making it less likely that incorrect ballots will be distributed. The election commission's plan reduces the 170 poll workers needed for last November's election to 100. The commission has said it has about 240 trained poll workers.

"We'll be down to 100, and we can pick the cream of the crop," he said.

Haley said the shift is imperative if new election equipment from the state is unavailable next year. The county's M100 optical scanners that read paper ballots can't be used at polling sites with more than 10 precincts.

New scanners approved by the state board of election commissioners can read ballots from all county precincts and put paper ballots at every polling location, providing a mix of paper and electronic voting the election commission has said would expedite voter flow.

The state's contract with Omaha-based Election Systems & Software, the state's election services vendor since 2005, expires at the end of the month. None of the $30 million the Legislature appropriated earlier this year to the governor's executive discretionary and rainy day general improvements funds for new equipment has been funded, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.

Jason Cline, spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said his office didn't anticipate receiving that money and has other funds it can tap for new equipment. He said using the $12 million in savings from Secretary of State Mark Martin's first term is a possibility, as well money the office's business division collects from creditors filing and indexing statements that list their interest in debtors' personal property or that release their claim on the collateral.

Per statute, a portion of the financing and termination fees are deposited into the County Voting System Grant Fund, which Garland County used $14,340 from earlier this year to purchase electronic poll books.

Haley said they can be used to verify voter registration and prevent voters from casting ballots at multiple vote centers on election day. The law requires vote centers be equipped with a secure Internet connection linking the electronic poll books to a central location.

The electronic verification updates voter information in real time, alerting election officials to voters who have already voted. It isn't required for conventional election day voting, when voters are assigned to designated precincts and don't have the option of voting at various locations.

The Pulaski County Election Commission recently sent the secretary of state's office a letter asking it to delay distributing new equipment until 2017. The letter raised concerns about implementing a new voting system before the 2016 primary in March, prompting the Garland County Election Commission to issue a letter asking that the delay be implemented on a county-by-county basis.

"In Garland County, we embrace the idea of procuring new equipment as soon as possible, and readily volunteer to be one of the test counties for whichever vendor you choose," Haley wrote Rob Hammons, the secretary of state's director of elections. "With the antiquated equipment in our current inventory, and the issues that occurred during 2014 elections, we feel that we can't afford to wait any longer than absolutely necessary."

Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed legislation last week to move Arkansas' 2016 primary from May 24 to March 1.

Local on 06/03/2015

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