LITTLE ROCK — At least one election monitor will be present to try to make sure the special election Tuesday in Crittenden County is run correctly, the Board of Election Commissioners decided Wednesday.
Board legal counsel Tim Humphries said at the meeting that the voter fraud allegations made by two candidates in May normally would not be severe enough to send election monitors, but that the board should send the monitors anyway to increase confidence in the election.
Also Wednesday, 2nd District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said he has asked state police to investigate allegations of voter fraud from the Democratic runoff for the seat in May.
The board voted unanimously to send the monitors after an initial vote against doing so failed with three in favor and four against.
Early voting for the general election began Tuesday and will continue through Monday, the secretary of state’s office said.
The election is being watched closely by the state’s political parties because a Republican win in a district held by Democrats for decades would give the GOP an even greater presence in the House of Representatives. Currently the 100- seat House has 45 Republicans and 54 Democrats, the largest number of Republicans in decades.
In May, Republican John Geelan, 63, of Marion and Democrat Kim Felker, 53, of Crawfordsville each sent a letter to the board asking for monitors to be at the general election Tuesday.
Geelan is the Republican nominee. Felker lost the Democratic nomination by eight votes after a runoff and a recount.
The letters allege that at the primary and runoff elections there were not enough poll workers at polling sites, that polling sites did not open at the correct time, that more votes were cast than the number of people who were registered, and that polling sites did not have backup machines.
The candidates also wrote that absentee and provisional ballots were not validated correctly and that poll results were not counted correctly or at the right time. Both letters cited problems in Turrell.
Board Director Susie Stormes sent a staff member to Crittenden County, where District 54 is located, to try to resolve the issues with the Crittenden County Election Commission before the election.
Geelan is facing Hudson Hallum, 27, a Democrat from Marion, and independent candidate D’James “Two” Rogers, 31, of West Memphis in the general election.
Crittenden County Election Commission Chairman Eric Darden of West Memphis told the board Wednesday that the allegations from Felker and Geelan have no merit.
“I welcome monitors, no problem,” Darden said. “Their first complaint, needless complaint, to me has no bearing or even the strength to be put on this table to even dispatch any monitors, but I welcome them.”
Humphries said that the problems were caused by untrained poll workers, not enough poll workers and some instances where the county commission wasn’t following proper procedures.He said those problems have been resolved.
“The allegations and concerns that were raised in this regard for the most part are not things that we would send monitors to Crittenden County for,” Humphries said. “I think perhaps that the county and just confidence in the election generally would benefit from having anelection monitor to go over there.”
Stormes said the board will likely send one or two monitors who will drift between polling places that had problems in the prior elections.
Board members were split on whether to send monitors at all.
Board member Susan Inman, the president of the Arkansas County Election Commission Association, said sending monitors would give the county election commission the opportunity to prove it is operating correctly.
“There’s no harm in sending monitors,” Inman said. “That’s the function of this board.”
Board member Jason Willett, a former state Democratic Party chairman, said by sending monitors to Crittenden County the board is setting the bar too low for when monitors can be requested.
“Obviously we could go in, I just think it’s a bad precedent to set unless we’ve got some real concrete information in front of us that says why we definitely need to goin to put in monitors,” Willett said.
State police last week agreed to investigate claims of voter fraud using absentee ballots. The claims were made by Felker and Dixie Carlson, the chairman of the Crittenden County Republican Party who is also a county election commissioner.
Both contacted Ellington, the prosecuting attorney, who then asked state police to investigate.
There were 470 absentee votes cast during the runoff, with 401 for Hallum and 69 for Felker, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The District 54 seat opened when now-former-Rep. Fred Smith, D-Crawfordsville, resigned Jan. 26 after he was convicted in Chicot County Circuit Court of felony theft. Circuit Judge Sam Pope ordered Smith to pay restitution of $29,250 back to the Dermott School District, suspended a 12-month prison sentence and placed him on probation Feb. 14.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 07/07/2011