The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners has issued a "Combined Investigation Report," according to documents obtained by the Reckoning Thursday that contain "findings of facts and conclusions of law."
The Reckoning investigated and broke the story after examining documents that a Pulaski County Clerk's office employee accessed voter registration street files and made changes that allowed 132 voters potential access to ballots containing candidates outside of their districts.
One major point in the "Combined Investigation Report":
- The Pulaski County Clerk's Office failed to prevent the inappropriate changing of 132 voters record street files
Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth and Deputy Clerk Candace Edwards provided testimony under oath accompanied by Pulaski County Civil Attorney Adam Fogelman.
According to Edwards testimony, ES&S (Election Systems & Software) "informed the Clerk's Office that, for the 2024 General Election, they could not give the individuals in the call center read only access to PowerProfile."
Her testimony continued "that it was her understanding that ES&S logins had to give them full access which included the ability to change voter registration records."
"The workers in the call center needed access to view the street record files as part of assisting poll workers calling in," the report stated.
Edwards testimony further claims "they made additional security system requests of ES&S which included a requirement that two people confirm a street file change in order to give different positions differing levels of access inside of PowerProfile, and ability to run a report to track all changes made in PowerProfile."
Edwards testified that after the discovery of this "incident" after the General Election the clerk's office has taken additional steps to ensure a secure process.
"ES&S has provided them with the ability to have read only access for those workers who do not need to make changes within PowerProfile," Edwards testified.
The Clerk's office "will now run a daily report for supervisors at the end of each shift." In the future "no changes are made without at least two people from voter staff looking at it to make sure that the change does need to be made."
Edwards told the SBEC "the rogue deputy clerk who changed the voters street files was a twenty-year employee of the Pulaski County Clerk's Office."
Edward's testimony confirms the Reckoning's reporting in November.
The SBEC analysis of issues during its investigation states: "The Pulaski County Clerk's Office failed to prevent a deputy clerk temporarily working on the election from going outside of regular procedures to inappropriately change 132 voters' record street files."
The SBEC staff recommends: "The SBEC find that the Pulaski County Clerk's Office violated election law, and that the SBEC offer to resolve this complaint with a Letter of Warning."
The complaint issued by Pulaski County Election Commissioners on Nov. 19 is confirmed valid and timely.
The alleged election law violations by the former Pulaski County employee inappropriately changed street segment of 132 voters in potential violation of Arkansas code 7-1-104 (a) (16) which is "a felony to fraudulently change or alter poll books of any Election except as authorized by law."
The precinct change in October is alleged to have been changed without authorization and will now be forwarded to the Pulaski County Prosecutor and the Attorney General Tim Griffin's Election Integrity Unit.
The information contained in the complaint states that "this inappropriate change impacted four voters who did vote after the change occurred and prior to the change being remedied. These voters were issued incorrect ballots because of this improper street file change."
"It is the duty of the county clerk to prepare precinct voter registration list prior to voters casting their ballot. As in 2020 and 2022 Pulaski County Clerk's Office failed to prevent improper changes to voter registration street files."
Will Hollingsworth be investigated by the Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney or by the Election Integrity Unit of the Arkansas Attorney General?
According to the SBEC, "Staff recommends that this portion of the complaint be investigated. The proper respondent to this portion of the complaint is the Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth."
Jeff LeMaster, communications director for Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, told the Reckoning Thursday afternoon, "We've received the referral from the SBEC, and it's an open investigation."
Read more from the Reckoning's ongoing investigation into the Pulaski County Clerk's office where we went deeper into the election results of 2022 and 2024.
Richard Owens
Richard Owens
