FORT SMITH -- The School Board is asking that voting in the 2017 school election be limited to absentee and early voting because of the lack of contested races and no proposed millage increase on the ballot.
The Fort Smith School Board passed a resolution Monday asking the Sebastian County Election Commission to conduct absentee and early voting only for this year's school election. There would be no voting on the appointed school election day, Sept. 19.
The only board positions up for election in Fort Smith this year are currently held by School Board President Deanie Mehl and by Jeannie Cole.
Mehl has announced she is not running for re-election. Fort Smith attorney Greg Magness is the only candidate to file for Mehl's seat. Cole has filed for election to her eighth term. The terms run for three years.
The resolution said the proposed school tax rate is 36.5 mills, the same rate the district has levied since 1987. Mehl said last month that even if the millage is defeated, it would remain at the current rate.
A mill is one-tenth of a cent. Each mill is charged against each dollar of assessed value and would therefore produce $1 of tax for each $1,000 of valuation.
The resolution referred to Arkansas Code Annotated 6-14-102(c)(1), which said if there were no millage changes proposed, a school board "may request to the county board of election commissioners to reduce the number of polling places or to open no polling places on election day so that the election can be conducted by absentee ballot and early voting only."
Election Commission coordinator Meghan Hassler said Tuesday all other school districts in Sebastian County also would limit their elections to absentee and early voting this year because they lack contested races.
If the election commission chooses to eliminate election day voting, early voting would take place at the Sebastian County Courthouse in Fort Smith and at Greenwood City Hall.
Hassler said a meeting of the commission to take up the request probably will be called within the next week. A notice would be published if the commission chooses to limit the election to absentee and early voting.
Hassler said not having to open polling places on election day will save money, but she couldn't say Tuesday how much.
The abbreviation of the school election will delay the introduction of vote centers, which were approved recently for Sebastian County by the secretary of state. The election commission had planned to initiate vote centers for the school election.
Hassler said the delay until the next election, which she believes will be the May primary, will cause no problems.
With vote centers, any registered voter can vote at any polling place in the county. Electronic poll books hold identities of all voters and have all the different ballots on which they must vote.
In regular voting places, a person is assigned to a particular polling place that has the voter's ballot.
State Desk on 07/19/2017