“The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners … voted not to decertify the former Crawford County election commission chairman over the mishandling of nullified absentee ballots during the 2022 primary election.
“By a 4-2 vote, Bob Coleman received only a letter of reprimand for inadvertently taking an envelope of 27 ballots home with him on election night and then leaving them there for a period of time the following morning.
“The issue arose out of a recount in the election for House District 25 after the ballots had to be re-made due to issues with having them scanned by a vote tabulator.
“It’s always a challenge to determine intent apart from outright violation,” Secretary of State John Thurston said. “You know, most of these people are volunteers that run elections. And I believe that the outcome of today was fair, but also I hope [it] brought more of an awareness to those election officials.” (…)
“Coleman, who called 2022 the “election year from hell,” was in his third tenure on the commission at the time of the incident….
“After being questioned by the board’s legal council and his own, Coleman gave an emotional statement before the final vote…”
Bilenda Harris-Ritter, one of the commissioners who voted to decertify Coleman, said
“I believe Mr. Coleman as the chairman of the commission and a member of the election commission in that county for more than 16 years had a responsibility to avoid the appearance of” impropriety…. I think that people may make mistakes, but they have to be responsible for those mistakes. And I believe that the decertification is appropriate.”
“Letters of reprimand have been issued to the other two Crawford County election commissioners, citing election violations that included failing to complete vote canvassing before 7:30 p.m. and allowing an unauthorized person — a poll worker — to handle ballots….”
(Candidate Jody Harris sued after she lost the 3-county District 25 Republican primary to state Representative Chad Puryear in May 2022 by seven votes. Her lawsuit disputed the count by the Crawford County Election Commission but was filed in Franklin County; the Judge dismissed it, saying it should have been filed in Crawford County where she alleged the problems occurred.)
Read more about the recent meeting of the State Board of Election Commissioners at ArkansasOnline.com