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Senators recess deliberations in election dispute case Friday, Mar 28, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A Senate committee spent more than five hours behind closed doors Thursday reviewing testimony in a disputed 2006 state Senate runoff election before going home for the weekend. The chairman of the committee, Sen. Steve Faris, D-Malvern, said deliberations went well and that the long weekend should allow committee members time to read witness testimony and review the volume of documents presented in the case. The committee is to return Tuesday to continue deliberations, he said. The Legislature is to meet in special session beginning Monday to consider a proposed increase in the state's severance tax on natural gas. "It's just going to take some time," Faris said. "I want every committee person who has questions ... about any kind of law or legal procedure to be able to ask their question." The committee chairman also said he expects some election reform legislation to come out of the deliberations. The committee is considering a charge by former state Rep. Arnell Willis of Helena-West Helena, that election fraud caused him to lose the June 13, 2006 Democratic runoff for the District 16 state Senate seat to Jack Crumbly of Widener. Willis, a three-term state House member at the time, appeared to have won the runoff against Crumbly, the Earle school superintendent, after the initial vote count showed Willis ahead by 28 votes. However, a recount put Crumbly ahead by 68 votes, and a second recount confirmed Crumbly as the winner. He was seated in January 2007. Willis filed a lawsuit in St. Francis County Circuit Court challenging the election results. A special circuit judge ruled in February that the Legislature, not the courts, should decide who should occupy the Senate seat. The Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs made history Tuesday and Wednesday when it heard testimony from witnesses and attorneys representing both Crumbly and Willis. Mike Easley, Willis' attorney, told the committee that 881 voters in the runoff election should be stricken because they were questionable. Robin Carroll, Crumbly's attorney, said no more than 30 votes were questionable and that the election should not be overturned. The committee must decide whether there was voter fraud in the 2006 runoff election and, if so, whether fraud caused Crumbly to win. After deliberations, the panel will make a formal recommendation to the full Senate, which eventually will decide who should hold the seat. Faris said Thursday he also expects the committee to recommend streamlining the state's election ballot. "I hope we can come up with some kind of uniform ballot policy," he said, noting testimony during the hearing that indicated there were different rules and procedures for early voting ballots, absentee ballots and regular ballots. Witnesses also testified that absentee ballots were difficult to understand and complete. "We really need some uniformity in ballot laws," Faris said. "There needs to be some safeguards." |
