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Baxter County Election Commissioner Gary Smith (R) has officially been voted in as the chairman of the Baxter County Election Commission following a unanimous vote by Commissioners Bob Bodenhamer (D) and Bill Andres (R) during a Wednesday morning meeting at the Baxter County Courthouse.
Smith is returning to the election commission after losing his seat to former Baxter County Election Commissioner Lynn Weaver in the Baxter County Republican Committee’s February election.
Smith was asked to return to his old position following Weaver’s resignation in June. He was voted into the position by the BCRC during their monthly meeting last Tuesday.
“We’ve got a new election commissioner. He returned after a little sabbatical. And we’re certainly happy to have him back,” said Commissioner Bodenhamer.
Following Smith’s appointment as chairman, the BCEC took up the third item on its agenda for its Wednesday meeting.
Due to the demolition of the old First Baptist Church building on 6th Street, the 14th Judicial Drug Task Force will be moving its offices into a portion of the BCEC’s Election Headquarters.
Built in 1953, the First Baptist Church building has housed several organizations and county offices throughout the years, including North Arkansas Community College, ASU-Mountain Home and several county offices.
A portion of the building was being used to house the Drug Task Force.
The demolition of the old First Baptist Church building has weighed on some members of the public, who valued the building for its looks and historical significance. Sadly, the building has fallen into a state of disrepair over the years and the building is no longer safe to use.
Due to the state of the building, Baxter County Judge Kevin Litty has opted to move forward with the demolition of the building. The building is set to be replaced with a much-needed parking lot.
With the old church no longer being available, the BCEC and the Drug Task Force will now have to share a building. To ensure that the commission’s election equipment and ballots are not tampered with by the BCEC’s new neighbors, the county will be sealing off the Drug Task Force by installing partitions in the building.
The BCEC has also installed cameras that overlook the headquarters’ doorways and rooms.
“As everyone knows, the Drug Task Force is going into the commissioner’s office,” said Baxter County Election Coordinator Lindsay Roberts. “They’re going in the very front room, all the front back corner. They’ll have their separate entrance. I’m getting it closed off to where they have no access to our machines, to our office, whatsoever. Even the bathrooms are going to be locked off.”
The Drug Task Force will have access to bathrooms on their side of the building.
Emails, timecards and pay
Following that announcement, the BCEC discussed the creation of a new baxtercountyar.gov email account for the commission to help keep official records and to further help prevent potential FOIA violations.
Prior to this, members of the BCEC would often use their personal emails for county business. Some past commissions would also create a commission-wide email for public use, but those accounts would often be lost due to members leaving or being voted out of their positions.
“That was another problem, because it had double security on it,” said Smith when talking about past email accounts. “So, they would have to call that phone number and if that phone wasn’t in our location, we were dead in the water. You could do nothing.”
In addition to the new email account, commissioners will now also be required to clock in and out of work via their phones when conducting hourly work during work sessions. Commissioners will still receive their per diem pay when conducting official meetings.
If a commissioner forgets to clock in during a work session, they will have to notify Roberts to update their digital timecards. Commissioners will not have the ability to modify their clocked times after entering them into the system.
Commissioner Bod Bodenhamer pushed for the measure earlier in the year during a Baxter County Personnel Committee meeting over the creation of Roberts’ new position as election coordinator. During that meeting, the long-serving commissioner spoke out against past members of the commission who would game the system by claiming to work more hours than they really did.
“You guys are going to begin clocking in and out because you’ll get paid an hourly rate,” said Baxter County Payroll Manager Kaci Queen. “And then when you have meetings like this, you get paid your per diem. So, we’ve got you all in the portal. We can set it up by your phone.”
Commissioners are currently paid $125 per diem for each public meeting they hold. During working sessions, commissioners are now paid $18 an hour.
In addition, poll judges are now paid $16 per hour and poll workers are paid $15 per hour.
New Pollbooks
Following their discussion over pay, Roberts opened a discussion on the county’s new state-funded “pollbooks”.
The ES&S ExpressPoll Electronic Pollbooks will allow poll workers to check the voter registration status of voters by scanning the barcode on the back of their driver’s license. Once scanned, the pollbook will search the state’s system to verify that the voter is currently registered and in the right location.
The system will also notify poll workers if a voter is attempting to vote multiple times. The pollbooks app will also help reduce provisional voting by providing up-to-date absentee status of voters to poll workers. The new tablets can also provide voters with directions on how to reach the correct voting district.
Baxter County’s pollbooks are one of the few pieces of electronic equipment that are connected to the internet via a secure connection as required by Arkansas law. The BCEC’s state-issued laptop is also connected via a secure connection, allowing the commission to input and upload election night results to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Poll workers will still be required to physically check each voter’s license or ID in addition to scanning them into the pollbook.
Poll judges and workers can expect training on the new pollbooks in the coming months. Some poll workers will also be asked to begin training as poll judges as some of the county’s current poll judges have expressed a desire to leave their positions.
All Baxter County voting machines are NOT connected to the internet and are routinely checked for accuracy when scanning and printing ballots. Arkansas uses voting machines that produce a paper ballot that is then counted by a machine.
These ballots can be checked by hand for accuracy, as proven by the BCEC’s hand recount of the special millage election earlier this year. A full breakdown of that recount can be found here.
Filing periods and ballot draw
One of the last orders of business for the BCEC’s Wednesday meetings was to set up an official date for ballot drawing.
Several of Baxter County’s political seats will be up for grabs during next year’s primary season including 11 Quorum Court seats, 11 Constable seats and two Mountain Home School Board seats. Arkansas State Representative Jack Fortner’s seat is also open after his announcement he will not be seeking another term.
Arkansas State Representative Stetson Painter may also have to defend his seat next year.
In keeping with the spirit of tradition, the BCEC will allow next year’s candidates to draw for their spot on next year’s ballot. The drawing will be held on Dec. 5 at the Baxter County Courthouse at 9 a.m.
Next year’s early voting period may also see some changes. The BCEC is currently in negotiations with First United Methodist Church to hold early voting on its campus.
If approved, the location would allow the county to set up more than 20 voting machines for early voters. The deal is still tentative. If not approved, early voting will most likely be held at the Baxter County Courthouse again.
In addition to a potential new location, state law now requires early voting times to match those of election day. The new early voting times will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday after early voting begins and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
