County election woes blamed on company
Jacksonville Patriot. May 31, 2006
By TONI WALTHALL, Editor

The election problems in Pulaski County had nothing to do with election officials or the clerk?s office, county attorney Karla Burnette told the quorum court Thursday night.

Burnette said the problems were two-fold, resulting from a malfunctioning opening and closing system of the electronic voting machines and mistakes in programming.

?The machines were programmed by precincts instead of polling sites. We have several precincts that go to the same polling site,? Burnette said. ?The system did not know where to put those votes. The software couldn?t recognize those votes.?

Optical scan machines, referred to by election officials as ?Eagles,? also malfunctioned because of malfunctioning Unity Software for the iVotronic electronic voting machines, supplied by ES&S.

Vote recounts are required. In response to questions from members of the quorum, Burnette explained how the recounts would have to be done.

The iVotronic paper tapes, that record the votes, will have to be unrolled and manually examined and counted.

?In some instances, a ballot will print over another, but we can reprint (the tape) to verify and make sure that each vote is counted correctly.

Pulaski County election officials have 15 days to certify the county?s election results. According to Burnette, the county is still awaiting the arrival of ballots from voters overseas. The time expires 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Burnette and justices of the peace laid the blame for problems squarely at the feet of the company that supplied the state with the new iVotronic voting machines.

?The problem was in how the company programmed the software system,? said Burnette. ?We programmed the Eagles ourselves and we?re confident there will not be the same problems in the run-off election.?

Burnette said that election officials will do everything in their power to accommodate any sight-impaired voters in need of the audio voting capabilities of the newer machines.

Justices of the peace commended Burnette?s devotion to her job during the election night chaos.

Burnette expressed her gratitude to County Clerk Pat O?Brien and the clerk?s staff, whom, she said, ?Stayed until the bitter end.?

JP Phil Stowers said that if the recount results in a turnover, candidates have indicated that a lawsuit will be pursued.

In other business:

JP Charles Roberson broached the issue of flooding in the Crystal Hill Road area caused by the dumping of cement products in the flood plain.

According to Roberson, a concrete company has opened a facility on property adjacent to his, piling ground rock and cement on the property, without a permit. The mountain of ground cement has resulted in excessive flooding in the area, according to Roberson.

?It flooded so bad that a Boy Scout group couldn?t get out to go home,? said Roberson.

According to Sherman Smith, director of the county Road and Bridge Department, due to some miscommunication, North Little Rock officials told the company that a permit to dump in the flood plain was not necessary. Though the property in question was annexed by the city of North Little Rock, the city has no control over the flood plain, which is under the control of the federal government.

?Though you are allowed to dump without a permit, you cannot back water up. This is throwing the water to the east, raising the flood elevation,? said Smith, pointing to a photograph showing a mountain of ground rock and cement stored on the property.

Smith said that during a 100-year flood, the water in the area backs up to the river. Now, with any precipitation, water is being constricted.

Roberson told the quorum that he hasn?t seen that level of flooding since 1978.

Smith said he is continuing to work with North Little Rock officials to see if the issue can be resolved.