Ex-elections official to run for secretary of state to ‘restore good service’

A director of the elections division under former Democratic Secretary of State Sharon Priest wants to oust Republican Mark Martin as secretary of state in 2014.

Susan Inman of Little Rock, who headed the elections division under Priest from 2000-2003, said Thursday that she’s decided in the past few days to seek the Democratic nomination for secretary of state, after several months of consideration.

“It seemed like the right time to get out there and see how it goes,” said Inman, 66. “I am excited.”

She said she hopes to avoid a contested Democratic primary and that’s why she announced her plan to seek the office now.

Inman said she’s running for secretary of state to “restore good customer service”to the office.

The secretary of state is paid $54,305 a year to oversee a staff of about 160 people. The duties include helping counties with elections, maintaining a statewide voter-registration system, caring for and providing security at the Capitol, and maintaining a number of business and state records.

Inman said elections are an important part of the secretary of state’s job and she works well with election officials throughout the state.

“I promise to do a good job,” said Inman, president of the Arkansas County Election Commission Association, chairman of the Pulaski County Election Commission and a member of the state Board of Election Commissioners. She also is a former election coordinator and elections director for the Pulaski County Election Commission.

She said her term on the Board of Election Commissioners has expired and House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, will appoint her successor, and she also will resign at the appropriate time from the Pulaski County Election Commission.

Inman said many county election officials complain that the secretary of state’s office doesn’t answer their questions or return their phone calls promptly.

Inman said she would be at the Capitol each day and people would be able to reach her if she’s elected, adding that Martin isn’t at the Capitol each day.

In an e-mail, Martin dismissed Inman’s criticism of him as “frivolous accusations.”

Martin spokesman Alex Reed said Martin, from Prairie Grove, was in his office Thursday.

During this year’s legislative session, Inman urged Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe to veto three election bills, which Beebe did.

The bills, sponsored by Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, would have created a voter-integrity unit in the secretary of state’s office, terminated the six appointed members of the Board of Election Commissioners, and authorized the Board of Election Commissioners to remove a county election commissioner under certain conditions.

King said the bills were aimed at curbing voter fraud. Beebe said he received numerous communications from election officials and election commissioners “of all political persuasions” urging him to veto the measures because they viewed them as unwarranted attempts to undo a carefully crafted system of checks and balances among the Board of Election Commissioners, the secretary of state and local election commissioners.

Martin, 45, served three terms in the House of Representatives before he defeated Pulaski County Clerk Pat O’Brien of Jacksonville 392,468 to 372,123 to win election in November 2010 as secretary of state.

In the 2010 campaign, Martin linked O’Brien to President Barack Obama, calling O’Brien “a hard-charging leftist” - not a moderate as O’Brien described himself - because O’Brien was “a point man” in Arkansas for Obama’s presidential bid in 2008.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/10/2013

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