State director responds to Searcy resignations

Published 1:31 pm Wednesday, September 30, 2026

LITTLE ROCK – Director of the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners Chris Madison responded to questions regarding the resignation of the Searcy County Election Commission and some of the claims made within their press release.

The Searcy County Election Commission asserted that they resigned “due to concerns over inaccurate voter lists and potential unjust reprisal” from the state board. Madison said that Searcy County was randomly chosen in 2024 after literally having their name drawn out of a bowl. That monitoring revealed that they failed to count 11 ballots, Madison said.

During the 2024 primary election, Madison said they were monitoring 70 different polling locations throughout the state with that number increased to 100 during the general election.

He denies that any actions taken this election cycle would be in reprisal for anything that happened over the last two years. “I’m sorry that they feel that way about it. The state board’s approach to it is that there are rules to follow for every county across the state when it comes to elections. Our job is to help election officials be held accountable to ensure they are complying with the law,” Madison said.

In fact, he praised them for the work they put in between the 2024 primary and general elections. He thought they were on the right track this year as well. “I thought things were going well. Their resignation surprised me.”

The Searcy County Election Commission described how they believed they would be subject to felony convictions if they allowed incorrect ballots to be handed out. Madison seemed confused that they thought this. “I have not considered the handing of a wrong ballot to someone accidentally as a knowing violation under the felony provision.”

He continued by describing the video call he held with them using Microsoft Teams. “The Teams meeting we had with everybody where they were trying to avoid this problem is strong evidence that they’re not trying to commit a crime.” During that meeting, he said they all discussed ways to help mitigate mistakes.

“They’re pretty well set up and ready to go,” Madison said. He said that given the relatively small amount of voters in Searcy County, implementing mitigation strategies would be fairly easy. “I thought we had a pretty good plan going forward.”

Madison was emphatic that he had not considered them on a trajectory that would have led to felony accusations.

Within the press release, the former chairman of the Searcy County Commission said that the state had withheld important training from them. Madison responded that, “They have gotten the same training that every other election official in the state has gotten.” He continued, “We do that for everybody in the state.” He said he checked with his staff to ensure they had answered every question from Searcy’s commission.

Asked whether the use of paper ballots had caused additional monitoring, Madison said, “They did a really good job with it. They take it seriously.” He described their approach to ensuring a proper count as good. “I really thought they were coming along well.”

Madison said that they are working to ensure that Searcy County voters have a secure and fair election. He and his team have been to Searcy County to ensure everything is proceeding. He said he will be there next week with ES&S to assist with logic and accuracy tests. “We are fully committed to helping Searcy County have a great November election,” Madison said. “We’ll work with the county authorities to get some commissioners in and we’ll make sure to do the best we can to ensure a good election in November.”

Regarding the commission’s resignation, Madison said, “I’m sorry for their frustrations. I hate that they feel the way they do.” He continued, “I’m glad for the service they’ve done.”