FORT SMITH - It cost Sebastian County $5,150 to change one letter on the May 20 Republican primary election ballot.
Lee Webb, the county Election Commission chairman, said Monday the county reprinted the Republican primary ballots last weekend to correct the last name of Republican lieutenant governor candidate U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark. It appeared on the ballot spelled “Griffen.”
He said the error required the printing company to remake 108 printing plates to make the correction.
The $5,150 came from the county general fund, Webb said. He said the printer agreed to print the ballots at cost, which saved the county about $3,000.
Sebastian County Judge David Hudson said that the cost for the reprinting, which will come from the county’s Election Commission budget - which is funded by the general fund - would not “unduly burden” that budget.
Webb told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week that the ballots would not be reprinted to correct the typographical error because the three-member Election Commission had approved the ballots in that form.
But later the decision was made to reprint the ballots because, he said, he learned that the commission had approved the ballots with Griffin’s name spelled correctly but that it was then typed incorrectly into the computer and went to the printer misspelled.
He said then-Election Commission coordinator David Mansell supervised the person typing the information into the computer and was responsible for the accuracy of the ballot.
The ballots normally are entered into the computer before the Election Commission and party chairmen review and approve them, Webb said. This year, he said, election officials got behind in preparing the ballots and the information was entered into the computer after the officials approved the ballots.
Mansell resigned March 21 from the coordinator job he held since January. Contacted last week, Mansell said only that he quit because the job was not a good match for him.
He resigned after it was discovered that the three Republican lieutenant governor candidates were listed on the ballot out of order.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 04/02/2014