County to discuss addition of election coordinator

During the September Faulkner County Quorum Court meeting, Election Commissioner Marvin Lessmann presented a study he conducted on hiring an election coordinator for the county. At that meeting, Lessmann was told that he needed to address the election commission and then the personnel committee of the court before going before the full court.

That issue is slated to be addressed at the Election Commission’s Thursday meeting, according to County Judge Preston Scroggin. 

Additionally, Scroggin said the Quorum Court had developed a committee comprised of members of the budget and finance committee and the personnel committee. The chair of the election commission is Frankie Spears and County Clerk is Melinda Reynolds.

Scroggin said he thought the two most probable outcomes of this larger committee meeting would be either hiring a full-time election coordinator or adding a position to Reynolds’ office which would focus on elections. 

“I think those are the two things which could come out of the meeting,” Scroggin said.

While the person would be hired by Scroggin, the coordinator would work with the election commission and Reynolds during the election process. 

Lessmann said he sees the possible hiring process as being the election commission screening and interviewing candidates and offering candidates to the judge. After the judge interviews the candidates, a recommendation would be made by the commission.

Lessmann recommended collectively advertising the position and hiring in a non-partisan fashion. 

Lessmann said the need for a coordinator has arisen because in the past there have been “serious problems in elections.” These problems included lawsuits and elections which had to be redone. 

With this history, Lessmann said he looked at what other counties with similar election systems were doing. One of the things these counties were doing differently was having an election coordinator. 

The coordinator would be hiring people to run polls on election days.

Although one of the potential problems initially placed in front of Lessmann was money to fund the position, Lessman said, “Money is not an excuse. Money would be saved.”

He said having one person in charge of the election would take a burden off of the clerk’s office, which is “over taxed particularly during the election season,” Lessman said.

Scroggin said the decision process to create the position would not be rushed, however, he thinks justices are leaning toward adding another position to Reynolds’ office that would primarily work on elections.