An audit of the May 20 primary election revealed that human error caused an incorrect outcome in the unofficial results announced election night in the District 45 race.
Also, Bruce Haggard has resigned as chairman of the Faulkner County Election Commission for reasons he said was unrelated to the election.
Regarding his resignation, Haggard would only say that his decision had to do with the amount of time the position demands.
On election night, Dr. Terry Fiddler was thought to be the winner of the District 45 race by a narrow margin. Linda Tyler, who was running against Fiddler for the Democratic nomination, asked for a recount. In the process of the recount, uncounted ballots were discovered, as well as the error, and Tyler was found to be the winner.
According to a press release from the Faulkner County Clerk's office, a programming error caused inaccuracies in the results reported on election night. An audit was conducted by an Election Systems and Software technical expert who flew in to determine what happened and how such errors can be avoided in the future, the press release said. Two representatives from the Arkansas Secretary of State's office also attended the audit.
According to Natasha Naragon, spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office, Carder Hawkins, Help America Vote Act project manager; and Janet Harris, deputy for elections and public affairs, observed the audit.
"It was a good exercise and learning process for all involved," Naragon said.
The press release was written by Bruce Haggard and sent to the Log Cabin Democrat by County Clerk Melinda Reynolds, but each declined to comment beyond the contents of the press release.
As previously reported, the District 45 race was left off the two machines at the East Cadron B polling site, but the error was discovered before the poll opened, and voters received paper ballots.
The press release states, "However, when tabulating the votes on election night, the votes from East Cadron B should have been added to the report using a slightly different procedure than from all other electronic ballots, since the District 45 race was missing. Not following the right procedure resulted in having the wrong totals for District 45 at that poll, an error which was caught upon recount and confirmed by examining paper trail on the voting machines. Analysis showed that the errors were human and that they could have been caught by more careful proofreading both in the testing processes that are recommended by ES&S and by more thorough election night checks.
"The lesson to be learned from the audit is that the machines and election software provide very quick and accurate results, but it takes humans proofreading and testing to be sure that all races are on the ballots and reported as they are supposed to be."
Haggard said in the press release, "I am convinced that electronic voting machines are more fraud proof, more accurate, more convenient, and a big improvement over the older ballot systems. However, all systems of voting require a great deal of oversight, proofreading and testing in order to deserve the public trust."
(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
