The primary runoff is Tuesday, but questions about Grant County's primary continues.
A Republican local runoff and a statewide runoff are on the Grant County ballot – the county clerk race between Jacob Palmer and Stefannie Pruitt and the statewide Republican Secretary of State race between retired U.S. Army First Sergeant Bryan Norris of Batesville and state Sen. Kim Hammer of Benton, who is term limited in the legislature.
But Grant County had a very questionable election on March 3. So much so that when the Reckoning highlighted some of the issues Attorney General Tim Griffin's office stated its Election Intrigrity Unit was opening an investigation into primary election.
On Election Night, a stark date – the year 2024 – stood out on the bottom of the results page handed out to candidates and media from the election office. Why 2024? The current year is 2026.
I asked about the date in real time at the Grant County Courthouse. The workers had one explanation on Election Night. The 2024 date was an "admin issue" and Grant County didn't have an admin to fix it.
(Read about other Grant County Election Night issues here and here.)
I have not given up asking questions although the Grant County election results were certified, according to a Facebook post on the Grant County Election Commissoners Facebook page. The year at the bottom of those results was changed to 2026.
Prior to the certification I asked Grant County Circuit Clerk Geral Harrison questions in an email. He forwarded them to Charles Jones, Grant County election commissioner. My questions and his answers are in the screenshot below.
If the answer to number one is true, why did counties like Cleveland, Jefferson and Saline – to name only a few – have the year as 2026 on their results on the night of March 3? What state system?
If the answer to number two is accurate, why does the document below have different dates?February 2 is nowhere on this document, which is stamped and filed by the Grant County Clerk's office. This document shows the testing to have been done during early voting.
State law requires Logic & Accuracy testing to be done at least seven days prior to early voting starting.
If number three is true, why did several candidates in Grant County tell the Reckoning they knew nothing about an L&A test? Why was the media notified by phone and not email? Why is no email to candidates about the testing in emails obtained from a Freedom of Information request by the Reckoning? What media was notified? Who attended the public demonstration?
In the days following the March 3rd primary election, the Secretary of State's website showed more than 5,805 votes cast in Grant County while the unofficial results given to candidates and media Election Night showed 3,997 votes. One race even had more than 6,000 votes.
Look at the Hammer and Norris race in Grant County on the Secretary of State's website after the primary. It shows 5,805 total votes in nine precincts.
I emailed Samantha Boyd, Secretary of State Cole Jester's communications director, on March 12 about why the numbers were all over the map in Grant County.
"There was a display error on the website; however, the data submitted by the county is accurate and is now correctly reflected," Boyd said. "Following the election, our office conducted a review of each county’s reported results to ensure they were displayed properly and identified one discrepancy involving how Grant County was displayed, which has since been corrected."
Look at the same race in Grant County on March 29 on the Secretary of State's website.
How does nine precincts increase to 26? How did roughly 6,000 total votes drop dramatically? What were the real numbers? Where did the the 6,000+ number come from in the first place?
The questionable election has triggered citizens filing complaints with the State Board of Election Commissioners.
Secretary of State's office and political warfare
The Secretary of State's office oversees elections.
Jester has touted repeatedly Arkansas has the most secure elections in the country. Then why avoid the issues in the Grant County election?
Questions deserve answers. After all an run-off is occurring in real time. On March 12, I still had more questions for Boyd.
Samantha,
This is a developing story. After reporting the irregularities in number of votes cast between the Grant County clerk and Secretary of State website, the public is seeking answers.
The Sheridan Headlight newspaper is now reporting that the county clerk worked with the SOS to correct the irregularities according to its article "other data fields appear only as sequences of coded entries rather than traditional vote totals."
Who authorized the process to correct the irregularities on the SOS website? The public deserves an explanation on how "data field sequences" that the SOS has now corrected were generated from the secure voting system that then populated incorrect vote counts.
The public is now questioning which set of numbers are accurate, the county's original numbers or the secure data field numbers published by KNOWiNK on behalf of the state of Arkansas.
There is still no answer concerning the 2024 date on the March 3 election results and the November 2025 certified election on ballot issues that also have 2024 on it as the offficial date? Why? Other counties do not have 2024 on their results from March 3, 2026.
The number of precincts also do not add up.
Another question: Why did Grant County do their L & A testing after early voting began per the document you sent me Friday? Why did Angela Stevens with the SOS office remind counties about L & A testing after early voting instead of before? All counties need to be in working order before the first ballot is cast. It is established Grant County did not have their L & A testing done prior to early voting starting. I have several emails about this from a FOIA request.
Samantha, there is a Secretary of State run-off occurring right now. Election intregrity is at the heart of that run-off between Kim Hammer and Bryan Norris.
This situation does not only affect local races in Grant County. This election affects state and federal races.
Please provide comment that clarifies to the public how the current Secretary of State's office corrected these irregularities and how they occurred in the first place.
After all, I attended a press conference in Little Rock where Secretary of State Cole Jester touted Arkansas was number one in the nation for election intregrity.
Thank you, Suzi Parker
Just hours after I sent the questions, Jester posted his endorsement for Hammer on his personal Facebook page during business hours on a work day.
Jester wrote on March 12, "Today, I am endorsing Senator Kim Hammer and calling on Bryan Norris to resign from the race due to his offensive and demeaning language towards women.
"Christians are called to be peacemakers, but that does not mean tough truths cannot be spoken."
Jester continued to write about Norris' salty language years ago in a social media post. He ended with this line: "Such language disqualifies anyone from leading this office of almost two-hundred people."
Now, I am not saying I had anything to do with Jester's endorsement of Hammer. However, he certainly was not busy answering my questions.
In fact, weeks later my questions still go unanswered, but he has continued to promote Hammer, 67, a Baptist preacher from Saline County.
Plenty of the state's Republican leaders from the governor to local Republican Party leaders have also spent a lot of time on social media praising Hammer and bashing Norris.
With many Arkansas politicians being seemingly anti-Norris, they have all echoed a similar message that continues to roll on social media fueled by a Heritage Foundation study that Arkansas is first in election intrigrity. The same study promoted by Jester.
The social media posts have generated a plethora of comments especially from Republican state Senator Alan Clark of Lonsdale who has kept Facebook hopping with posts supporting Hammer.
Former Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin has even weighed in on election integrity praising himself and the efforts of many politicians along with long-time staffers in the Secretary of State office who helped with the implementation of Arkansas' current election process.
State Treasurer John Thurston, who was the most recent elected Secretary of State, also wrote a lengthy comment on a post by Martin reiterating the security and accuracy of the state's elections:
"The truth is this: the strongest
election systems use a combination of paper ballots and modern tabulation technology. Paper provides the physical record. Machines provide the accuracy and
speed. Audits provide the transparency. That's the balance that protects both security and confidence.
"Going backward to hand-marked, hand-counted ballots doesn't make our elections safer. It makes them
slower, less accurate, and more
vulnerable. We should be improving our systems – not replacing proven tools with methods that fail under
real-world conditions."
Martin on Sunday posted again on social media:
"Did you know that the
'ENR" (Election Night Reporting) is
not about fast results? That is a side
benefit. It is not remotely used for
official or certified results... NOT AT
ALL! Period. Full stop. It has one
core purpose. Accountability. If
ENR results do not match submitted
certified results ... it triggers a close
look at what went on from ENR
reports to certified reports. Ask
yourself..why would a person want
to get rid of an accountability
system that exposes those 2AM
sudden swings we have seen in
other states?"
For all of the social media posts, the Secretary of State's race has gained national attention. Norris recently appeared on Newsmax while Hammer declined. (Watch here.)
The long list of current and former legislators' unwavering support for Hammer with a clear narrative that Norris is an outsider who does not play party politics and his stance on election integrity is obsolete or unwarranted.
Is it?
What does Norris say?
The Reckoning asked Norris a question Monday morning. Within minutes, a response was given.
The question: If elected what specifically would you like to see changed about Arkansas' current paper ballot?
Norris replied quickly:
"First, let’s correct the premise of the question. Arkansas does not currently have paper ballots. What voters receive is a printed receipt generated by a ballot marking device, a machine that interprets your selections and produces a summary printout. That is fundamentally different from a hand-marked paper ballot, where a voter’s own hand records their intent directly onto the document that gets counted via a barcode.
As Secretary of State, I want to be clear: I do not make the law. The Arkansas General Assembly does. My role is to faithfully administer elections within the framework the legislature establishes, and I will do exactly that, regardless of my personal preferences.
That said, you asked for my personal opinion, and I’ll give it to you straight. I believe Arkansas voters deserve the gold standard: a hand-marked paper ballot, filled out by the voter’s own hand, counted in the open, and available for a full hand recount when the integrity of an election is in question. A receipt from a machine is only as trustworthy as the machine that printed it. A ballot marked by a human hand leaves no ambiguity about voter intent and no dependency on software to interpret it.
President Trump’s own executive order called for hand-marked paper ballots. I agree with him. That’s the direction I believe Arkansas should move, and I will advocate for it through the legislature and through public education. But I will always follow the law."
Then There's Phillips County
Just last week Attorney General Tim Griffin announced the arrest of eight individuals in Phillips County.
"Eight people in Phillips County recently turned themselves in after agents in my Special Investigations Division obtained warrants for their arrest on felony charges related to a runoff election for the Phillips County Justice of the Peace seat for District 9," stated the release from Griffin's office. "Lita Moore Johnson, 62, a teacher at Marvell School District who won the runoff election for the Justice of the Peace seat, was one of the individuals arrested after evidence was submitted that she told multiple voters to illegally change the address on their voter registration so that they could vote for her in the runoff. Johnson was charged with two counts of solicitation to commit perjury, a class D felony.
“Seven other individuals were charged with perjury, a class C felony, for fraudulently changing their address on an Arkansas Voter Registration Application. Each of them voted in the precinct corresponding with the District 9 Justice of the Peace runoff despite their actual address dictating that they vote elsewhere."
As Republicans shower Hammer with support, questions surrounding Grant County's primary elections remain unanswered from Jester's office who get paid to answer questions from media and concerned citizens.
Mind you, both Samantha Boyd and Cole Jester are paid with taxpayers' money. Samantha Boyd makes $84,000, and Cole Jester makes $111,772.13, according to the site Transparency.Arkansas.gov, which was created by former Governor Asa Hutchinson. Jester was appointed in December 2024 – not elected – by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
I have sent a reminder email to Samantha Boyd about answering questions.
However, questions about Grant County appear irrelevant as state and local Republicans rally to get Hammer into the office that oversees elections.
