The Jefferson County Election Commission disqualified 128 provisional ballots that were cast during early voting in Jefferson County at a meeting held Wednesday, the day after the election, for the purpose of adjudicating absentee and provisional ballots.
Of those ballots, 107 were rejected because it could not be determined that the voters who cast them were properly registered to vote in Jefferson County on Election Day. The remaining 21 ballots were rejected because there was no photo identification to verify the voter's identity in accordance with state law.
Those ballots will not be counted, but a hearing will be held at the Election Commission office at 123 Main St. in Pine Bluff on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. for those voters to verify their eligibility to vote in the election. All voters whose ballots were rejected by the commission will receive a letter notifying them that their ballot was not counted and instructing them to appear at the hearing if they wish to appeal the decision.
"To my knowledge, in the past, we've had maybe one or two people show up for a hearing," Election Commission Chairman Michael Adam said.
[RELATED: Full coverage of elections in Arkansas » arkansasonline.com/elections/]
"The main thing is that they have an opportunity to address this," said Commissioner Theodis "Ted" Davis. "It's a real concern that we had this many people who tried to vote but can't."
Another 11 provisional ballots that were cast by voters who had requested an absentee ballot but did not receive one were approved by the commissioners to be counted.
Of provisional ballots that were cast at the polls on Election Day, 89 of those ballots were rejected, and letters will be sent to those voters also to notify them that their ballot was not counted and to advise them of the hearing on Nov. 13.
A few ballot envelopes created some confusion when it was discovered that they did not contain a ballot, but after a few minutes checking through the records, it was discovered that those ballots had already been counted.
"So those aren't really provisional ballots at all," Adam said.
A few envelopes contained spoiled ballots, which had been intentionally voided due to a voter casting votes for more than the allowable number of candidates in a race. Arkansas law allows a voter to "spoil" up to two ballots and to receive a third when voting.
The commissioners painstakingly went through each provisional ballot envelope and signed each one, verified that it was properly adjudicated, then handed them off to Election Coordinator George Stepps to make a final count. The ballots will be maintained on file at the Election Commission office for 24 months.