Election board tends to provisional ballots

Election Commissioner Samuel Beavers (left), Michael Adam, chairman of the Jefferson County Board of Election Commissioners, and Commissioner Sharon Hardin sort through provisional ballots. Video at arkansasonline.com/529ballot/. 
(Pine Bluff Commercial/Eplunus Colvin)
Election Commissioner Samuel Beavers (left), Michael Adam, chairman of the Jefferson County Board of Election Commissioners, and Commissioner Sharon Hardin sort through provisional ballots. Video at arkansasonline.com/529ballot/. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Eplunus Colvin)


Election night is long past now, but the nitty-gritty of finalizing the votes was still under way last week.

The Jefferson County Board of Election Commissioners held its regular meeting on Wednesday, at the Election Center, 123 Main St. in Pine Bluff.

Michael Adam, chairman, Commissioner Samuel Beavers and Commissioner Sharon Hardin spent most of the meeting adjudicating provisional and absentee ballots and approving manual audits of unofficial election results.

Provisional ballots are ballots cast by voters who believe they are registered to vote even though their names are not on the official voter registration list poll books at the polling locations.

As the commissioners went through the provisional ballots, they worked with a Jefferson County clerk's office official to confirm the provisional ballots of voters who were not registered to vote or their registration was done after the cut-off date.

Other problems identified were voters who missed the deadline to transfer into the county as well as voting machines that malfunctioned during the early voting period when several ballots were spoiled and provisional ballots were reissued.

A spoiled ballot is a ballot that has been marked incorrectly and is not counted by election officials. A spoiled ballot never makes it into the ballot box.

Officials said poll workers reissued the ballots but didn't know how to proceed, which caused some discrepancies.

Officials also found many provisional ballots lacking a photo identification document.

One issue that all of the election officials agreed on was the poor design of the new provisional voting machine screen software.

According to officials, the provisional screen was confusing, making it hard to identify the precinct number. Officials said the new software was installed only a few months before early voting and even with instructions on how to use it for voters, the new equipment still caused some problems on election day.

The numbers are still being finalized, but the following absentee and provisional ballot totals as provided by the election commission are :

Early Voting

15- Total provisional ballots

12- Not counted, not registered

03- No identification

Election Day

32- Total provisional ballots

26- Not counted, not registered

04- Counted

02- No identification

Absentee Ballots

119- Total absentee ballots

14- Not counted for no identification and were turned provisional

07- Counted

02- Not counted and late returning

Letters were sent out and phone calls were made to inform voters of their absentee and provisional ballot errors.

The commissioners also discussed whether they would be opening all of the polling locations for the runoff set for June 21 and also discussed if polling centers would be used for future elections.


  photo  Voting machines are returned to the Election Commission Office from polling locations on Wednesday. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Eplunus Colvin)
 
 


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