What’s that they say about the best-laid plans of elections and those who work them sometimes going astray?
Obviously that was the case in Carroll County during last week’s primary election when news accounts said the number of paper ballots cast in four precincts somehow didn’t tally with the number of voters who’d registered.
Now I’m far from being an authority on flawless election techniques, but should imaginary Mary Smith show up in my imaginary precinct with an ID and I, imaginary poll worker, write Mary’s name in the official imaginary voter registration book and present her with a ballot that she completes and places in the imaginary metal box, I’d say that’s about as straightforward a voting process as is humanly possible.
So little wonder election commissioners were scratching their heads in trying to figure out how records in one precinct showed 10 people voted in the GOP primary for House District 98 when 64 citizens actually showed up to cast votes.
I’d call that more than a small discrepancy.
State Sen. Bryan King, a Republican lawmaker who minces few if any words, also was wondering how the same person’s name was on the official polling documents as participating in both the Democratic and Republic primaries.
You pullin’ on my leg? Strikes me I’d be relieved of my poll responsibilities should I register someone to vote in both parties’ primaries.
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Leaving a mess
I can only sympathize with that couple in Benton County who awoke one day last June to encounter a bevy of police and a road crew intent on draining their pond in search of a missing teenage girl.
The authorities had been acting on an anonymous tip that April Dawn Andrews (and evidence related to her murder) was submerged in Terry and Cathy Johnson’s pond on their property along Arkansas 94 between Rogers and Pea Ridge.
Authorities began draining the little lake and using cadaver dogs to try to locate the girl. And the dogs apparently did act as if they detected a body in the pond.
Their dredging continued with a renewed sense of encouragement as workers cut through the banks and created holes at the bottom. The mud dredged from the pond wound up dumped onto the Johnson’s property, including a big ol’ pile of the goop amid a grove of 100-foot-tall trees. It sounds like these fellas did one heck of a job of digging and piling.
After the mud had been layered high and assorted rubbish and debris spread far and wide, no human remains turned up. So the officials walked away and left that abundant God-awful mess for the poor Andrews family to admire. “Sorry folks. Good luck!”
Now the family is asking the county to clean up the havoc it suddenly wreaked on their land. Knowing County Judge Bob Clinard, if he hasn’t already agreed to do just that, I feel pretty certain he will see that it’s done.
He should, since it’s just the right thing to do.
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Golf legends nearby
Talk about a major rush of enthusiasm for golfers and fans of the game and virtually in our back yard.
Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Fred Couples, Tom Watson, perhaps Arnold Palmer (his health permitting) and other renowned PGA veterans with who knows how many green jackets among them will gather for several days 25 miles north of Harrison, just across the Missouri border, for a team tournament being called the Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf between June 4 and 8.
I’m even more interested because for the first time in lo these many years, I volunteered to be a course marshal for a men’s PGA Tour event. So if you see a bearded guy wearing a maroon shirt hoisting his arms in an appeal for quiet on the ninth hole that Friday and Saturday, don’t laugh out loud, please. Just exude an ounce of compassion and understanding. Oh yeah, and remember to turn off your cell phone.
Part of this inaugural Legends tournament for seniors paired in two-man teams will be played on what once was known as Branson Creek. Under redesign by Tom Fazio, that once-impressive layout has been brilliantly reshaped and immensely improved into a dramatically altered and improved championship course now called Buffalo Ridge.
The tournament’s alternating segment will be played at the Par-3 Top of the Rock on a course designed by Nicklaus that those who know say is more magnificent than perhaps any course (especially a Par-3) in the world.
Some superlative talk. But even Kip McBride of HNS Sports Group based out of Ohio told us 200 marshal wannabes in an orientation meeting that he experiences hundreds of stunning courses and PGA tournaments each year. And the new Top of the Rock, after seven years in remodeling and rebuilding, is the most amazing and impressive he’s ever seen.
Others credible folks who’ve witnessed the handiwork have echoed McBride. So just experiencing the sights there and watching all those top PGA veterans playing together again (along with being pleased to see the equally remodeled and enlarged Top of the Rock Restaurant reopening on June 9 after seven years of refurbishing and rebuilding) is plenty enough to make me a contented man.
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.