Search:

The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK—A former election coordinator and poll worker told a legislative panel Wednesday that discrepancies in vote totals and hundreds of missing ballot stubs throw into question a 2006 primary runoff for a state Senate seat.

Testimony continued in the hearing in which the Senate is being asked for the first time in its history to resolve a disputed election and consider whether to oust a sitting senator.

The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee will recommend to the full Senate whether Sen. Jack Crumbly, D-Widener, can remain in his east Arkansas post despite the allegations from former Rep. Arnell Willis of Helena-West Helena. Senate District 16 serves parts of Crittenden, Lee, Phillips and St. Francis counties.

Crumbly was declared the winner in the 2006 Democratic primary runoff through a recount after initial results showed Willis the victor.

B.J. Griffith, a St. Francis County poll worker who was hired by Willis’ attorneys after the election to investigate the county’s voting records, said St. Francis County officials initially said in February they could not locate a ballot stub box from one voting precinct. Then, Griffith testified, the stubs were found in a cardboard box in the janitor’s closet of the church that served as the precinct.

“This is supposed to be secure, but it’s in a shabby box with a piece of tape on it,” Griffith said. Griffith also accused Frederick Freeman, the county election commission chairman, of walking off with an “armload” of absentee ballots on election night while poll workers were still counting them.

“We’ve never had a commissioner come to us and say ‘give me the ballots,’ so I refused. ... I was so angry, I said ‘screw it all, there goes the election. Frederick Freeman has got the ballots,”’ Griffith said.

Griffith told the panel there were discrepancies between the numbers of absentee and early voting stubs and ballots counted.

Judy Armstrong, who served as election coordinator during the June 13, 2006, primary, testified that she could never account for numerous unused ballots ordered for the election. Armstrong said she counted as many as 173 missing unused ballots.

Results initially showed Willis the victor, but Crumbly was declared the winner after a recount. There was no Republican running for the Senate seat and Crumbly was sworn in last year. Removing a sitting senator requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate.

Robin Carroll, Crumbly’s attorney, questioned what proof Griffith had that Freeman did anything to alter the outcome of the election.

“You’ve made the scandalous accusation that he took ballots from one box and stuffed them into another box. I’m just trying to figure out when he did it,” Carroll said to Griffith during cross-examination.

The contest landed in the Senate after a special circuit judge ruled in February that the Legislature, not the courts, should decide who is the seat’s proper occupant.







Easley initially said he would appeal but changed his mind and said he wanted the hearing before the Senate.

The proceedings have taken on the feel of a cross between a legislative hearing and a trial, with the panel acting as a jury. The panel will deliberate privately before making a non-binding recommendation to the 35-member Senate for its vote. Sen. Steve Faris, the committee chairman, said deliberations could begin as early as Wednesday afternoon.

The panel again questioned both attorneys after Willis’ attorneys wrapped up testimony from his witnesses Wednesday afternoon, but gave few indications on how they may decide.

“We’ve gotten so involved with these details that I think we’ve missed the big picture. I’m more confused now than when I sat down here yesterday morning,” Sen. Randy Laverty, D-Jasper, said during the question-and-answer session.

Easley said he didn’t have a specific number on how many ballots from the 2006 election are in doubt, but said it is in the hundreds.

“If this election is so indefinite that you cannot take ballot results from it and have confidence in them, then it must be thrown out,” Easley said.