Thread by @ibbycaputo

How I'm Still Fighting to Vote in Arkansas

Eleven emails, five calls, one veteran political reporter and the intervention of the Arkansas State Department: What it takes to have my vote counted in rural Arkansas.

As a recent expat, I’ve already experienced what it is like
to have my vote not counted. My husband and I moved from Arkansas to England in January, and while my husband’s ballot for the primary arrived in the mail in time to vote, mine arrived after the election.

For the presidential election, I was determined to have my vote counted.

On September 15, I mailed my application for an absentee ballot to the Newton County Clerk in rural Northwest Arkansas. I tracked the envelope. Ten days later, it had still not arrived.

In fact, it was still in England, held up by the Royal Mail at the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Center. (A spokesperson for the Royal Mail later told me the hold-up was “an isolated incident” due to “a technical issue with the scheduled aircraft.”)

Afraid that my application was lost in the mail, I called the Newton County Clerk’s Office on September 25. I told the woman who answered the phone what happened and she asked if I wanted her to email me my ballot. This should have been my first red flag.

She had not yet received my absentee ballot application. I later discovered that this application is kept on file and used to confirm a voter’s information. Without it, a vote must be rejected. But at the time, I didn’t know this and I told her yes, please email me my ballot.

The ballot I received via email from the clerk's office was askew on the page, which worried me. Also, there were no instructions for how to return the ballot. I emailed the clerk’s office to ask if there were any special instructions for returning the ballot.

Perhaps I need to sign the back of the envelope? The clerk’s office replied, “Just send the ballot back to us.” This seemed strange. Surely there’s some sort of procedure for making sure the ballots are legitimate, so I wrote back to ask if I need a special envelope.

The clerk’s office replied, “Are you wanting to mail it back or send it via email?”

Send it back via email? Now I knew something was wrong. How would it be secure to email back my ballot? How could it be counted? Also, the clerk’s office would know who I voted for.

I did a quick search online and found a “Voting 101” document released by the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Elections Division which states, in bold, under “Returning your Absentee Ballot,” “You may NOT fax or email a ballot.”

I replied to the email from the clerk’s office to say that I would prefer to mail back my ballot. The clerk’s office replied that I could mail the ballot back in an envelope to the Newton County Clerk’s P.O. Box.

So many things about this were not adding up.

How is it okay to just mail a ballot back in a regular envelope? How could the clerk’s office be sure the ballot is legitimate? I called my father-in-law. He and my mother-in-law used to live in Carroll County, Arkansas, and they also recently moved to England.

I knew that earlier in the week he had received his ballot over email. He told me he also received voting instructions, two envelopes to print out – a special envelope for the ballot and an envelope to mail everything back in – and a voter statement.

The voter statement needed to be signed and it stated a requirement for overseas citizens: we must provide a copy of government-issued photo identification, such as a passport or driver’s license.

Now I knew for sure that the Newton County Clerk’s Office was not following protocol and it was threatening my ability to vote. I called the Arkansas Secretary of State Elections Division to complain and seek council.

The person who answered dismissed my concerns and told me I should do whatever the clerk’s office tells me to do.

I then called the clerk’s office and spoke to the same woman I had spoken with before. I told her what I had discovered about returning absentee ballots

– that returning ballots via email was not allowed. She then said the clerk's office passes on the ballots to the Election Commission and it is up to them to determine whether or not a vote will be counted.

It was clear she did not know or care about election law as it pertains to absentee voting and had no interest in the responsibility to shepherd citizens' votes so that they will be counted.

I told her I want my vote to be counted,

and I asked if I could forward her the materials my father-in-law received with his ballot from Carroll County. She said sure, send it along and she’ll get me what I need. I forwarded her the information but I have not heard from her since.

I emailed a veteran political reporter I know in Little Rock. He then forwarded my email to a leading expert on election law and procedures, who then got in touch with someone she knew in the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office.

On the evening of Saturday, September 27,

I received an email from an Election Systems Analyst for the Arkansas Secretary of State containing the necessary instructions and forms the Newton County Clerk’s Office had failed to send me. Over the course of several back-and-forth emails,

the Systems Analyst also answered the rest of my questions. I was worried that my ballot was askew on the page. He told me it was a legitimate ballot and I should feel confident using it, but it looked scanned and did not come from the State’s electronic ballot delivery system.

He wrote, “That is not typical of this process, just so you are aware.” He provided me with my Voter ID to be added to the return envelope. He also forwarded me a two-page document released by the State Board of Election Commissioners with instructions for how county clerks

are supposed to process absentee ballots. This document outlined the reasons why my vote would not have been counted had I followed the advice from the clerk’s office. It states “Reject any ballot if… No voter statement is found in the return envelope” or

“If the election commission finds that the name, date of birth, address or signature on the voter statement do not compare to the corresponding information on the absentee ballot application.”

Fortunately, my absentee ballot application finally arrived in Newton County on Oct 2. (To be safe, I had also emailed the county clerk’s office an absentee ballot application, but I did not receive confirmation of receipt).

On Oct 3, I filled out my ballot, signed the voter statement, scanned and printed a copy of my driver’s license, placed my ballot into a special envelope, and then placed all of the documents into a return envelope. I then sent it all to the Newton County Clerk’s P.O. Box.

I’ve tracked the envelope. It’s still in transit. I can only hope it arrives in time to be counted.