State election board accepts two allegations of lawbreaking and dismisses two others
by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
August 6, 2025
Arkansas’ State Board of Election Commissioners issued letters of reprimand to three election officials from a North Arkansas county but declined to decertify them from working on future elections after several hours of testimony and debate Wednesday.
Attorney Clint Lancaster represented all three members of the Searcy County Election Commission in their challenge of the state board’s June decision to decertify Chairwoman Laura Gross and commissioners L.C. Ratchford and Ken Weekley for 14 years over four allegations of violating state election law in November 2024.
The state board on Wednesday sanctioned the three commissioners on two of the four allegations, issuing one letter of reprimand per charge and per commissioner. The first was “accepting something of value from an unapproved source” in the course of their duties, said Deputy Secretary of State Nathan Lee, serving as board chairman in the absence of Secretary of State Cole Jester.
The county’s election officials used audiovisual equipment — television monitors, cameras and scanners — provided by the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative to help observers monitor the vote counting, Gross testified.
Arkansas elections board decertifies Searcy County election commissioners
The second allegation was that the commission failed to post a full list of election workers in a public space in the county clerk’s office at least eight days before Election Day. Gross told the state board that the list was posted on time, but more election workers decided to participate within eight days of Election Day, and she did not believe the commission was required to update the list.
None of the state board members recommended decertifying the county commissioners over the list, but Commissioner William Luther recommended a four-year decertification over the audiovisual equipment. Commissioner Johnathan Williams seconded the motion, which failed after Luther and Williams were the only members to vote for it.
“I don’t think there was any intent [to violate the law] here,” Commissioner James Harmon Smith said. “I think they were trying to be transparent and they were trying to save the county money, and maybe they didn’t realize what it potentially could look like to someone on the outside.”
The Searcy County Election Commission paid only $100 to rent the audiovisual equipment, according to an invoice the state board received in June.
The idea for filming the counting process was a response to concerns from the public about election integrity, Gross said Wednesday.
“We have people in our county who have asked us, ‘How can we trust that you’ll count the paper ballots accurately?’, which is a valid question,” Gross said. “…I started asking around, and somebody said there’s a company that has that kind of equipment and will rent it, so I contacted them.”
Gross said that buying the equipment would have been much more expensive, but state board members considered the rental a gift because the price was far below market value and because the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative is not an audiovisual equipment company. Instead, the organization is a nonprofit connected to President Donald Trump that advocates for replacing voting machines with hand-counted paper ballots during elections.
Arkansas election officials debate voting machines vs. hand-counted paper ballots
Searcy County was the only county to count ballots by hand last year after its quorum court voted in late 2023 to adopt the procedure, and counting errors in the March 2024 primaries led the state board to sanction county election officials in October.
Lancaster represented the Voter Integrity Initiative in its unsuccessful lawsuit against the state last year to get approval of a ballot measure that would require all elections in Arkansas to be conducted by hand-counted paper ballots. Judges in multiple counties dismissed Lancaster’s case, but the measure made it onto the ballot in Independence County, where voters approved it in November.
Local and state officials have repeatedly defended the integrity and accuracy of using voting machines to count ballots.
On Tuesday, Lancaster asked state election board members to postpone Wednesday’s hearing and to recuse themselves from the proceedings, but the board refused both requests.
He said Wednesday that the county commissioners had tried to do their jobs well and did not deserve the accusations they faced from the state board.
“They haven’t committed fraud, they haven’t taken any gifts, and I would just appreciate it if you would send these nice people on their way back to Searcy County to continue doing a good job with elections,” said Lancaster, receiving applause from the audience in the packed meeting room. Commissioner Jamie Clemmer (left) listens to testimony during a meeting of the Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, in which attorney Clint Lancaster (right) defended the Searcy County Election Commission over four allegations of violating state election laws. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
Gross and Weekley are the county commission’s Republican appointees, while Ratchford is its Democratic appointee. Ratchford said in an interview after the hearing that he appreciated the state board’s decision not to decertify the commission but believed the debate over the allegations was “a waste of time.”
The state board dismissed the other two allegations against the county commissioners, determining after Wednesday’s hearing that there was not a preponderance of evidence that the commission violated election law.
One allegation was that there were too few election workers at a remote Searcy County polling place on Election Day. Four workers were required by law, but the commission received a last-minute cancellation from a poll worker due to an emergency and could not keep the polling place in compliance during the entirety of Election Day, Gross said.
Additionally, the commission allegedly paid election workers who had signed affidavits waiving payment for their work and did not pay some workers who did not sign waivers. Waylan Cooper, the state board’s legal counsel, said the commission also should have provided the county clerk with the payroll records.
Gross said the discrepancy came about when some election workers received payment for typical poll worker duties but did not want to be paid for their work hand-counting ballots. The state election board does not promulgate documents that allow for partial payment and partial waivers depending on different types of election work, Lancaster said.
Later in Wednesday’s meeting, the state board dismissed a complaint against Ellen Griffin, a Searcy County poll supervisor who was falsely accused of discouraging voters from using provisional ballots.
Lancaster also represented Griffin, and at Thursday’s state board meeting he will represent Searcy County poll worker Loretta Milam, who faces allegations of electioneering.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.
