FORT SMITH -- The Sebastian County Quorum Court has appropriated money to purchase enough voting machines to convert the county to all-electronic voting, despite some misgivings.
During a special meeting Tuesday night to consider funding sources for the new equipment, justices of the peace voted 12-0 to transfer $150,000 from the recorder's fund and $235,561 from the county general reserve fund to buy 83 electronic voting machines.
The ordinance the Quorum Court passed stated the money from the reserve fund would be repaid over five years at $47,112 per year.
The money County Clerk Sharon Brooks released from her recorder's fund and money from the reserve fund will eliminate the need to finance the purchase of the machines.
David Hudson, county judge of Sebastian County, told the Quorum Court that the options were a five-year lease-purchase agreement or an offer by First National Bank of Fort Smith to loan the money to the county at 2.7 percent interest.
Some justices of the peace said they opposed an option that entailed paying interest to buy the equipment.
The Arkansas secretary of state's office is buying 167 of the electronic voting machines and other election equipment for Sebastian County at a cost of $986,815 as part of a pilot program to test the new equipment. Secretary of State Mark Martin decided to buy from Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems and Software.
The state also is supplying the county with 94 digital poll books and two laptop computers to tabulate votes.
The 83 additional machines will bring the total inventory to 250, the number of voting machines that county election commissioners say is needed to transition county voting to electronic.
In a memorandum to the Quorum Court, Hudson said he called the meeting after the secretary of state's office asked that the county decide by the middle of next week on whether it will accept the new machines from the state.
Hudson and county election commissioners were pressing the Quorum Court to appropriate the additional money to transition to all-electronic voting because it would cost as much as $760,000 more if the county phases in the additional 83 machines over five years.
He said Tuesday that he didn't think the county could afford the cost of phasing in electronic voting.
Some justices of the peace and Brooks said Tuesday that they favored phasing in the electronic voting over five years.
Brooks said she believes people prefer paper ballots because they do not trust electronic balloting.
She also said the timing would be bad to introduce all-electronic voting in a presidential election year when turnout will be heaviest. She wondered whether all the poll workers could be trained in time.
The county now offers a choice of paper or electronic ballots.
Justice of the Peace Johnny Hobbs said a lot of older voters "will be scared to death" of having to use the electronic voting equipment. He said he thought that could drive away older voters.
Justice of the Peace Linda Willsey Murry said she liked using paper ballots but couldn't ignore the cost savings of having an all-electronic voting system.
Election commission coordinator Suzanne Morgan reminded the Quorum Court that Crawford County to the north has been voting electronically for 15 years and Benton and Washington counties were considering a conversion to electronic voting.
Metro on 08/13/2015