Jefferson County Election Commissioner Stu Soffer said incumbent quorum court candidate Delton Wright violated state law during early voting Friday afternoon at the courthouse, but Wright denied the charge and said Soffer is “rude and disrespectful” and needs training in “how to get along with others.”
Wright, the District 13 justice of the peace, is a Democrat. Soffer is the election panel’s sole Republican.
Soffer said Wright had been warned that he had already provided assistance to six voters within the courthouse, the maximum number allowed under Arkansas guidelines. When Wright allegedly began aiding a seventh, Soffer confronted him and sought to have him removed by a sheriff’s deputy, but Wright departed without an escort.
“He skedaddled before a deputy arrived,” Soffer said of Wright. “Apparently, Justice Wright doesn’t think that voting laws apply to him. Trying to deal with him nicely does not get results. When I told him to stop, he blew me off and proceeded to the voting room. He wasn’t permitted inside but waited outside.
“I told him I was done trying to be nice to him.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Wright countered that Soffer wasn’t providing an accurate account.
“If you know Stu, you know he can be rude,” Wright said. “He breathes, he lives for this political stuff. He just assumed he knew what was going on and didn’t make an effort to find out what was actually happening.”
Wright said he was “in front” of the county clerk’s office with his 30-year-old daughter, Kitna Wright, and they were having a “general conversation” as she prepared to vote.
“We weren’t talking about the election and I wasn’t trying to help her vote, and some employees in the office can testify to our conversation,” said Wright. “She knows how to vote. She’s voted several times.”
Wright said Soffer behaved immaturely by not “calling me over to talk privately.”
Instead, Wright said, Soffer “raised his voice and wound up hollering at me.” Wright said Soffer “blew things out of proportion.”
“A man doesn’t need to try to bust people out,” Wright said. “Stu got upset when I just walked away from him. He thought I was trying to be disrespectful, but that’s not who I am.”
Soffer, who said Wright was asked but refused to speak in private, said he reported the matter to Prosecuting Attorney S. Kyle Hunter.
“We’ll see what the prosecutor says,” said Soffer, who said he also believes Wright may have “intimidated” a voter.
“Justice Wright will learn that laws also apply to him,” Soffer said.
“I appreciate and respect the job people watching the election do, and that includes Stu,” said Wright. “This was just a misunderstanding on Stu’s part. I didn’t disrespect him in this incident, and I know the election rules and do my best to follow them.
“He’s lost his temper with me before and wound up apologizing. He’ll apologize to me again.”