LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The race to replace the late state representative John W. Walker has been an electoral adventure. A lost, and then found, ballot put the runoff in a dead heat between Joy Springer and Ryan Davis.
"Did my hives go down yet?" asked Evelyn Gomez, the chair of the Pulaski County Election Commission, partially joking about the stress of a tied election and a ballot that disappeared during a recount.
"The ballot in question was merely mislaid and it was sealed up in a box at the same time," she said.
So, all the parties gathered for a commission meeting to certify the recount that put the race back into a 372-372 tie. A lone UOCAVA absentee overseas military vote was unsealed, giving Springer one vote over Davis.
But based on the first hour of the meeting and questions already posed, even that single dramatic reveal is not likely to resolve the race.
"It appears as though there may be one vote that was cast of someone who was not a qualified elector," Gomez said, indicating she expected a challenge that could alter the final vote tally.
Gomez is being cautious, knowing judges may soon be involved, but she is not cautious about making a point about modernizing voting equipment and about the importance of the process.
"It's the people of Pulaski County that are going to have to be a squeaky wheel," she said. "There's a quorum court meeting on Tuesday. Show up and let them know that you don't want to see these problems. You don't want to see any voter fraud. Every vote counts. Every vote counts. Your vote matters."