From the Arkansas Advocate:
Arkansas’ State Board of Election Commissioners voted Wednesday to reprimand and decertify a poll supervisor accused of violating state election laws at a North Arkansas polling place last year.
The board determined that Kay Holland interfered with poll workers’ ability to do their jobs at a Horseshoe Bend church that served as a voting site in October and November 2024.
Testimony from Holland, Izard County Election Commissioner David DelVecchio and several poll workers led the elections board to conclude Holland violated the law by creating a “hostile” environment, telling workers to leave the polling place at an inappropriate time and failing to remove obstacles to poll watchers’ view of the site in a timely manner.
Poll watchers are assigned by local elected officials to monitor the casting and tabulation of ballots. Unlike other poll workers, they do not interact with voters or handle ballots.
Poll watcher Patricia Clary said an accordion wall in the church partially blocked poll watchers’ view of a vote tabulator machine and the poll supervisor’s desk.
DelVecchio testified on Holland’s behalf and said he took responsibility for the obstruction.
“Once we opened that up, the whole room was visible,” he said. “It wasn’t intentional to block somebody’s view. When we walked into the church, that’s where [the wall] was.”
Commissioner Bilenda Harris-Ritter said Holland and DelVecchio shared responsibility for the problem. She reminded the commission that Arkansas law requires poll watchers to have “uniform and nondiscriminatory access to observe all stages of the election process.”
Another poll watcher, Frances Petersen, said Holland directed her to sit in an area where she could not see the supervisor’s desk and accused her and Clary of being “argumentative” by questioning Holland’s orders.
Petersen said Holland spoke to her “like a school kid.” Holland disputed this.
“At no time was I talking to them like they were schoolchildren,” she said. “I was not disrespectful. I just told her there was an area that was designated for poll watchers, and everybody else had always sat there and was fine, no problem.”
Testimony of Holland’s “hostile” behavior “outweighs her statement that she didn’t feel like she was being hostile,” Harris-Ritter said.
“Although she did say she didn’t intend to, intent has nothing to do with the violations here,” she said.
The State Board of Election Commissioners certifies poll supervisors, and most of the board voted to strip Holland of her certification for four years and send her a letter of reprimand.
James Harmon Smith was the only commissioner to vote against these actions. He said he had no problem with the letter of reprimand but objected to a four-year ban on Holland’s position as a poll supervisor since she had no previous sanctions from the commission.
