Due to mistrust about voting machines, Searcy County is the first in Arkansas to switch back to paper votes

Little Rock, Arkansas – For the general election of 2024, one county in Arkansas has made history by going back to hand-marked, hand-counted paper votes.

Voters in Arkansas are increasingly supporting the removal of electronic voting machines due to worries that their security or accuracy may be jeopardized.

“The JPs reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, we’re getting a lot of conversations about paper ballots,'” said Laurie Gross, the commission’s head and the Republican election commissioner for Searcy County.

Voters globally and in Arkansas are becoming more and more apprehensive about voting machines.

The more harmless worries are that ballot marking machines might be flawed in various ways and are unable to accurately record the voter’s intent as well as pen and paper. The devices’ ability to facilitate electoral fraud is a grave concern.

“The government and the state of Arkansas legislation require us to purchase these devices from a specific company. We are not permitted to look at or audit their own software,” said Tommy Boyce Wimberley, a former Republican election commissioner for Searcy County.

“And that’s where we start to doubt the culpability of a machine that I cannot examine after the machine has counted my ballot to verify that nobody has hacked that machine,” Wimberley stated.

Proponents of switching back to paper ballots contend that Arkansas’ low voter turnout—the second lowest in the nation during this year’s general election at just 53.92 percent—reflects this mistrust in the state’s electoral system.

“What’s the reason? Why don’t individuals take part? The main organization advocating for a return to hand-marked, hand-counted paper votes in Arkansas, the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, said Colonel Conrad Reynolds, “It’s because they don’t trust the system.”

Some viewers might believe that only a certain type of conservative, such as the far-right or election-deniers, are in favor of bringing back paper ballots. But in a rare display of cooperation, Searcy County Democrats and Republicans reinstituted paper ballots.

“We want everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, to feel confident that their votes were fairly counted. “As a commission, we don’t care who wins or loses,” Searcy County Democratic Election Commissioner LC Ratchford stated.

After hearing the conclusions of a committee of election commissioners appointed to investigate the viability of the transition, the quorum court of Searcy County, acting on the wishes of the county’s citizens, passed a resolution in August mandating that elections be conducted using hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.

They were mostly concerned with the price because they had been informed that it would be very expensive. ‘They would bankrupt their county,’ I believe the quote to be,” Gross remarked.

The fact that the state will not pay for the additional, costly expense of printing more paper ballots, in addition to the requirement for additional election workers who would have to put in longer hours, is one of the main obstacles to switching to paper ballots.

“You’re gonna spend more on payroll, and you’re gonna spend more on printing because you got to print the ballots—but we can save in other places,” Gross stated.

Like the rest of Arkansas, Searcy County’s ExpressVote ballot marking machines cost about $8,000 each, need to be changed on a regular basis, and require county funding for reprogramming each election.

In order to accommodate voters with disabilities, the county has lowered the number of ExpressVotes it utilizes from 24 to 9. The county may have already saved more than $120,000 in this way.

Will those savings be offset, however, by the expense of switching to paper ballots?
Gross claims that the county’s 2024 primary election, which used paper ballots, was actually 18 percent less expensive than the 2022 primary election; it is unclear, though, how costly the general election was.

“I suspect that we will maybe not have saved money this time, but if it’s comparable, that’s what our quorum court asked us to do,” Gross stated.

Many lawmakers and state officials are not persuaded that going back to hand-marked, hand-counted paper votes is the best course of action, despite Searcy County officials claiming the general election went smoothly.

In contrast to computer counting, hand counting paper ballots makes them more susceptible to human error or tampering, according to Chris Madison, director of the state board of election commissioners.

“Your vote is immediately counted when you enter it in the tabulator and see the green screen. You’re depending on someone else to review and decipher your ballot after it has been hand-marked and hand-counted, which simply opens up additional options,” Madison stated.
Madison also questioned if switching to paper ballots would ultimately be financially feasible.
“There are some people in the state that are desperate to prove that paper ballots are not financially feasible,” Gross stated.

Searcy County and the state board of election commissioners have occasionally had a difficult relationship; earlier this year, during the county’s first paper ballot-only primary, the board chastised the county for counting mistakes that have since been fixed.

The reprimand, according to Searcy County election commissioners, was unfair because they had previously sought assistance but were not given the necessary direction.

“To me, that’s not getting the cooperation that we need from the state,” Ratchford stated.
“We wish they had informed us of such prior to their visit and scolding. “Teach us the proper way to do it,” Gross replied. “We asked them multiple times, we want to run a quality election, we want to stay within the requirements and recommendations of the law, and there was no help in that area.”

Madison claims that despite tense ties, Searcy County held a clean and easy general election. Apparently, locals concur.

“People were ecstatic. There were probably as many people who commented negatively, “Oh, we’re going back in time going to hand paper ballots,” as I could count on one hand. According to Mary Maguire-Jaeger, a poll worker in Searcy County, “there was a lot of energy at the polling place about being able to do it, get in there, and vote quickly and accurately.”

For another two years, Searcy County has been keeping all of its ballot marking equipment in case the quorum court determines it’s time to start utilizing it again.

Additionally, it should be mentioned that while Searcy County counts its ballots by hand, state law mandates that they be passed through tabulators for a preliminary count.