A group called Arkansas Voter Integrity Inc., led by Conrad Reynolds, who lost a Republican primary race against U.S. Rep. French Hill, has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Arkansas voting machinery.
The Pulaski Circuit Court lawsuit names Secretary of State John Thurston, the state Board of Election Commissioners and Election Systems and Software, which provides voting machinery in all 75 counties.
The suit contends the machinery violates state and federal law that requires that voters be allowed to verify their ballots before they are counted.
Said Reynolds’ news release:
We are told by election officials to check the names on the ballot summary card before we cast it into the tabulator, but the tabulator does not read the printed names on the ballot summary card – it only reads the barcodes. I don’t read barcode, so I cannot verify that my vote was properly recorded.
Reynolds is represented by Clint Lancaster, a Republican election commissioner in Saline County and, incidentally, the lawyer who carried a child support claim against HUnter Biden to national attention.
Reynolds news release says he favors a voting process that moves away from computerized devices. He wants paper ballots and hand-counting of all ballots, with the counting viewable by voters on live streams.
Reynolds, of Conway, filed incorporation papers for his initiative in August. He identifies himself as CEO. John Bailey and Donnie Scroggins are listed as directors. It is a nonprofit 501c4 organization, which exempts it from taxation. It also allows it to avoid transparency aboutfinancial supporters. Reynolds, it happens, criticizes a lack of transparency in ESS systems.
The group’s suit, which you can read at the link to news release, seeks an injunction to bar use of ESS machinery — voting machines that produce a ballot and the electronic tabulators — in future elections.
The suit was filed Monday and assigned to Judge Tim Fox.