Issue Spotlight: What candidates running for Arkansas secretary of state say about paper ballots

When Arkansans elect a new secretary of state in November, the winning candidate will be in charge of the state’s elections. That includes ones conducted with paper ballots. 

A few Arkansas counties in recent years have made a push toward requiring hand-marked, hand-counted ballots. Supporters of this effort say it’s needed to secure elections. Opponents point to the accuracy of electronic tabulators and issues with human error.

The debate has occurred as President Donald Trump has vowed to require paper ballots, even though the president doesn’t have the power to change state voting laws.

The State Board of Election Commissioners found “several discrepancies” in the vote tallies in Searcy County, which counts its ballots by hand, during an audit that followed the March 2024 primary election.

In the November 2024 election, Independence County voters approved an ordinance requiring elections to be conducted with hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.

The three candidates running for secretary of state — Democrat Kelly Grappe, Republican state Sen. Ken Hammer and Libertarian Michael Pakko — discussed the issue of paper ballots last month during a debate at the Arkansas Press Association’s annual convention in Eureka Springs. 

Here’s what the candidates had to say about paper ballots:

Democrat Kelly Grappe

Grappe said it doesn’t matter how she feels about paper ballots because state law allows counties to choose if they want to administer elections by machine or hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots if they so choose. 

Grappe said she wasn’t advocating for paper ballots, however, she spent time in Searcy County and said election officials didn’t receive the support or training they needed to be efficient.

“It’s important that the secretary of state supports the counties in whatever decision that they make,” Grappe said. “And so that’s my commitment to the counties — is to implement, to train and to execute well based on the system that they have decided.”

Republican state Sen. Ken Hammer

Hammer acknowledged counties have the right to use paper ballots, but said he is not in favor of them. 

“I don’t think that one or two particular counties in the state ought to dictate to the majority of the other counties that you have to step away, and you expect us to deviate from what has proven to be a successful session,” he said

Hammer noted that election officials earlier this year completed a recount in the Republican primary election that he won, and votes in all six challenged counties were counted accurately.

“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said. 

Libertarian Michael Pakko

Pakko agreed that electronic tabulating devices are accurate. The idea that paper ballots are needed because voters need a verifiable, auditable trail is unnecessary, he said. 

If voters use an electronic marking device, it prints the names of their selected candidates onto a paper ballot, Pakko said. 

“It’s a very open, transparent system and it’s proven to be very accurate,” he said. “If anything, I would say that maybe we need better technology for the voting machine reader to read actual text rather than just barcodes. I think that’s a concern that some voters have.”