Earlier this month, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced $8.24 million in state funds were being released to fund new voting equipment in accordance with Act 808 of 2019, passed earlier this year by the state’s legislative branch. Baxter County is one of 21 counties to receive funding, but local officials are concerned about the possibility of it not being enough.
Baxter County and Circuit Clerk Canda Reese was among several county judges, clerks, and election commissioners from the 21 counties that met with Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston and his staff shortly after Governor Hutchinson’s announcement. Reese says the proposal from the state would be for it and Baxter County to each put up $185,427, but she believes the county does not have enough money in this year’s budget to cover the cost.
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Normally, the average is just over 300 voters per machine per county, and Reese says the state’s proposal of 50 machines would nearly double that.
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Reese says the state’s Board of Election commissioners has selected Election Systems and Software (ES&S) as the vendor for the voting machines, and Baxter County is obligated to use their equipment. She and other officials believe if the state opened a bidding process to give other vendors an opportunity, that would save the state and counties a significant amount of money, but the timeline for bidding would not be sufficient to have everything ready for the upcoming March primary election.
As for the timeline for Baxter County to secure the needed equipment utilizing state money, Reese says she has had varying answers from state officials.
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The Baxter County Election Commission has a meeting scheduled for Monday to discuss this situation. The meeting begins at 8 Monday morning at 213 East Fifth Street in Mountain Home.
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