Jefferson County Clerk Patricia Royal Johnson on Tuesday defended her decision to conduct early voting for the November General Election in the room across from the Quorum Courtroom, despite calls for relocating it to the courthouse rotunda.
Speaking during committee meetings of the Quorum Court, Johnson said under state law, the county clerk is responsible for conducting early voting and she has asked the county’s legislative body for $15,000 to pay election workers during the general election and any possible runoffs. She also asked for $2,092 to cover the payments to an extra deputy who worked during the primary election.
“What ever money is not spent is going to go back to the county,” Johnson said.
Regarding the room where early voting will be held, Johnson said, “I’ve never heard one complaint about that room. If there were any complaints, they never came to me.”
Johnson was reacting to Stu Soffer, a member of the Jefferson County Board of Election Commissioners, who said he was acting as an individual commissioner. He said that until this year, the election commission was illegally paying poll workers hired by the county clerk’s office.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Soffer said that during the recent school election, Johnson hired five extra workers for early voting and ignored a state law which says that any additional poll workers over the one authorized must be approved and paid for by the Quorum Court.
He also alleged that when the election commission refused to pay those workers, Johnson allegedly contacted the White Hall School District to pay either her or them, rather than reimburse county general.
Soffer said for the upcoming election, the board of election commissioners has refused to use a poll judge picked by Johnson because security video after the runoff election ended showed that individual “engaged in questionable activity.” Soffer said that matter is currently being investigated by the state board of election commissioners.
Johnson said the commission was not going to tell her who to hire, adding that the individual in question “is going to continue to work.”
Soffer has previously said that the room where Johnson will conduct early voting can handle about six voting machines. During early voting for the March primary, which was handled by the election commission, 17 machines were set up in the rotunda and more than 5,800 people voted “without incurring any lines for the first time in many years,” Soffer added.
He also contended that the room where early voting will be held is not in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, a statement Johnson later disagreed with.
She said people with disabilities or who are in a wheelchair are moved to the head of any line, and a voting machine just inside the door of the room is available for their use.
An estimated 8,000 people are expected to vote early during the two-week period, which begins Oct. 24.
Despite the objections from Soffer, the Finance Committee of the county’s legislative body recommended that Johnson’s request be approved by the full Quorum Court when they meet next week.
Lost in all the furor over Johnson’s request was a similar request from the election commission for $85,000 to conduct the general election. The item was included in the proposed ordinance and was also recommended for approval.