House State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs Committee Part 2
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Speaker 2
0:06
You're ready to present your bill. Yes, sir. What's the bill number?
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
0:30
Senate Bill 975. 975. Right. I'm presenting this on behalf of Senator Fowles. This bill amends the law concerning the transmission of electronic information. Right now, all of the reporting on election certification goes to the Board of Election Commissioners and the Secretary of State. is replicated in several forms. The new technology of electronic transmission of information
takes care a lot of this issue, but there are still pages of forms that have to be hand filed out as well. The bill says that the Secretary of State will say which information is required and so doing comply with the federal election laws. All the election coordinators have on board with this bill. And I do have a witness here if she got notice of this information, Susan Enum of Little Rock. She was going to testify, but I haven't had time to get in
touch with her. Oh, okay. Okay. If we have some specific questions, as I've said beyond that with the – this would not, in fact, cause any problems of a transmission of electronic information on election night. That would not be affected at all. I'm
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
2:05
sorry, Representative Bernard, I had to take care of a little crisis.
Are you through with your presentation or do you have somebody testify or speak on
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
2:15
behalf of it? If I could, sir, now that I know she's in the room, I would like her just to say, make a couple of brief comments, and then we would love to respond to any questions the committee might have about the bill, sir. Yes, ma'am.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
2:31
And state your name and who you're with. Please, ma'am, for
Speaker 13
2:34
the record. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Susan Inman, and I'm Executive Director and President of the Arkansas County Election Commission's Association, and I'm also a recent appointee to the State Board of Election
Commissioners. I'd like to speak for this bill. It has the full support for the whole entire Association of County Election Commissioners because we see this redundant additional reporting on paper. It's already provided to the Secretary of State in the printed form. It's produced or submitted electronically, but there's also a printed form that comes along with it. So this is just duplicate
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
3:15
paperwork. Is there a question?
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
3:18
Were you ready for questions? Will you accept questions? Yes, sir. Dr. Sunkford, do you have a question? Ms. Inman, is the State Board of Election Commissioners, don't they include this in checklist for County Boards to check off about when they when they perform certain duties regarding the election. Is the State Board of Election
Speaker 13
3:49
Commissioners on board with this also? They're not objecting to it and the checklist you're referring to it is a checklist. I think it was intended to be helpful information rather than a document submitted to verify the election was run properly. And when the county boards certify the results, they have essentially said they have fulfilled their duties and
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
4:15
responsibilities. Okay. But will that checklist still be, I mean, it could still be available to use by county
boards if they chose to use that as a checklist or guidelines on some of their duties? Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 13
4:30
In the training of county boards? Absolutely. It's a valuable checklist. It just needn't be written into the code. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
4:39
Any other questions from the committee? Representative
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
4:43
Bernard, are you ready to close? Mr. Chairman, I'm closed.
Is anyone in committee in the room who would like to speak against this bill or for this bill?
What's the pleasure of the committee? We have a do pass. All in favor
say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say no. You pass your bill, Representative Bernard.
My thanks to my colleagues and the committee. We're now going to House Bill 1322. Representative Cheatham, are you ready? Do you have an amendment? Yes, sir.
Speaker 1
5:31
Can I have a cup of coffee, please? You ready, Mr. Cheatham? On his way. Did you get one?
Speaker 3
6:12
No, this is not ours. This is not mine. You have a... Huh? What do
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
6:33
you want? You have one? You do now. I have an amendment. All right, Representative Cheatham, we need a motion to adopt this amendment. We have a motion. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Ayes have it.
Representative Cheatham, you're ready to adopt your bill as amended. Give
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
6:48
me a second, Mr. Speaker. Let this young lady get
Speaker 40
6:54
her machine fixed down here. Where's the on
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
7:05
and off switch on that thing? Mr. Speaker, committee, House Bill 1322, the amendment
just, of course, puts the different
areas in the districts that we are looking at now. Of course, we had a map the other day, and after talking to people, we tried to go back I can look at that, and as other people with maps will tell you, that every time you make a change, you have other people that are happy, then you have people that are sad. And we tried to address what we could and what you have before you as a result of that. And I'll be open to any questions, Mr. Chairman.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
7:47
Any questions, Committee Representative? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Representative Duncan Baird
Unverified
7:51
Could you go over the changes between this and the previous map that you had? Yes, sir. Give me
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
7:57
just a second. I hope I can. Mr. Baird,
Representative Baird, one change was Drew County was put back in the fourth. Lone Oak County was put back in the second. White County was put back in the first.
As you know, every time you make a change, it affects the numbers, and then there's another change. Let me see. Franklin was taken out of the fourth and put back in the third. Johnson was put. Let's see. It's where it was. Madison County is now in the fourth. And, of course, part of the Washington County that was there is still there. I believe Hope County is the same.
Van Guren County is another county that's split. And you'll notice Baxter County has a little piece out of it up there at the top. I believe there are the changes, Mr. Baird. Thank you.
Speaker 56
9:10
Any other questions? Representative Lee? From my looking at the map, it looks like Pope was split. Is that what I'm seeing?
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
9:20
Ms. Lee, I don't think so. Your eyes are younger than mine, but I
Speaker 58
9:25
don't. Yeah, if you look like a couple of townships are
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
9:30
split there. You're correct. The edge, the little rural part, I'm sorry, you're right. The little rural piece of Pope County is now in
Speaker 60
9:39
the second. Did you follow any geographical or any other guidelines in that division? I
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
9:45
think those were townships. Am I saying that right?
Representative Duncan Baird
Unverified
9:51
I believe that's correct. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Mayor? You said that you made changes to the original map because you had heard concerns
about some of the, I guess, the way the lines were drawn.
Do you think that there are any concerns that remain with the
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
10:26
map as it is amended? Mr. Mayor, I think if, you know, you could ask, well, your map and one Representative Lee had and the one she had yesterday she improved it probably because any time you make a change yes let me back up to answer your question we did make changes trying to look at what we had and if we could make it better but any time you make a change as I said
as you well know you're going to make somebody happy, somebody sad we tried to do the best we could with what we had is it perfect i'm not sure you'll ever make a matter of fact i visited a little while this this information with someone here was 10 years ago and uh you know some of the same concerns then
and and uh it turned out the better for actually for one party later on eight or ten years later but
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
11:21
anyway okay thank you any other question we're having to answer camera
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
11:27
I just wanted to double-check my count in the map. It does appear that there are five counties that are split. Is that correct? I think that's correct. And prior to this, I mean, I realize we were probably going, we were all warned we were probably going to have to split counties. But before this, we had no splits. Is that correct? On the other map, Ms. President. I mean, no, I'm talking about the current district, congressional district maps.
Speaker 40
11:57
We had one that was split. I can clarify that. Well, I think there's only one that was split in the current map, I believe. I really think
Speaker 67
12:04
we were going from zero to five. No. Which
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
12:10
one is currently split? Garland County. Garland County, part of a piece of Garland
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
12:13
County. Okay. So we're going from what we're
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
12:17
going from? Well, there was a city that was split, Representative Klemmer. I can correct that. It was a city that was split. We've never had counties, but we did split a city. Oh, okay.
All right, thank you. We solved the problems 10 years ago. Representative Cowling, we have
Speaker 56
12:38
a motion at the proper time, so no to Representative Lee. Yeah, I had another question. I know originally when you were drawing the original map that you presented, Representative Cheatham, you were talking about the importance of keeping the delta together, and I notice you've moved some of the delta out of there now. What was your
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
12:53
reasoning for that? Actually, what was moved was we heard from timber producers,
and they want to keep the counties that have either large timber industries together, and that's
what we try to do to kind of help a little bit with
Speaker 56
13:08
that. And I appreciate that, and I understand wanting to address the concerns of an industry. It doesn't appear, though, you addressed the concerns of the Fayetteville area, though, so I was wondering how you would respond to that.
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
13:22
We just felt like that that was you have to get numbers somewhere, and actually from conversations with some of these other county officials
and other counties, you're not going to make everybody happy. So we try to do what we thought would be the best.
Speaker 56
13:37
Yeah, I respect not being able to make everyone happy, Mr. Chewman. I
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
13:40
totally respect that. We tried to take in Polk County, but that didn't work out. And on this
Speaker 56
13:45
map, you remember 10 years ago, Baxter was the ping pong, and you decided to make it the ping pong again? Yes, you know, we tried to move it back. Thank
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
13:53
you. We've got to move it back, but we didn't. Representative Hobbs.
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
14:02
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Since Representative Lee brought up Baxter County, it looks like you're just taking the middle of Baxter County out until you have some on both sides of it that will remain in the 3rd District. Is that correct? That's correct. And you couldn't, like, divide it more evenly where it wasn't just in
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
14:21
the middle like that? because of the populations in the county where they were located at and some concern from the people in that county. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 76
14:33
Grant's name, Steele. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question pertains to the 4th District. If
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
14:38
you keep the Delta intact, as you mentioned, in DeShay and Chico Counties there in the 1st, then you need to pick up a population center in the 4th. Is that fair to say? Yes. Some kind of metropolitan area. So I'm assuming you really had three options here. Either take Saline into the fourth, take Crawford and Sebastian into the fourth, or take Fable into the fourth. Is that correct?
That's correct. Okay. And could you just briefly tell us why you chose Fable?
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
15:12
Well, we just felt like that would be the best place to go. We had a lot of
resistance from some of the counties you mentioned. Of course, you know, like I say, we have resistance every place we go. So I
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
15:23
guess they're the path of least resistance. If I might, one more, Mr. Chairman. If you were to take Saline, for example, that would leave quite
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
15:30
a few problems in the 2nd District. Is that fair to say? Quite a few problems.
Let's see, the population in Saline, over 100,000, I believe.
If you took it in, you'd have to go way north, I think. Are you taking it in the 4th, talking about? Right. We had, to be honest with you, sir, we had a lot of resistance that was looked at. So based on those three options,
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
15:53
it was assumed that Fable was the best option, correct? That's what we felt like. Now, some people may not agree with that. We felt like
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
15:59
that would be the best option. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Cowley, do you
Speaker 10
16:04
have a motion? Do pass. I have a motion.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
16:10
Do pass. Is anyone in the committee in the room who would like to speak against this
bill? Far it? As amended, Representative Cowley. We have a motion as amended. Anyone that ought to speak against or for it? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no. No. Ayes have it. That's it. All right, let's roll call this thing. Let's get it right. Roll call it.
I don't mind. Eddie, Mr. Sponsor, you need
Speaker 83
16:57
to be down here. Representative Cheatham. Representative Gardner. Representative Roebuck. Representative Hutchinson. Representative Cowling. Representative Penards. Representative Baird.
Representative Hobbs. Representative Lee. Representative Wilkins. Representative Tyler? Yes. Representative Hopper? No. Representative Klemmer? No. Representative Nichols? Yes. Representative McLean? Yes. Representative Rogers? Yes. Representative Steele? Yes. Representative Vines? We didn't hear that. Yes.
Speaker 87
17:34
Representative Slinkard? No. Representative Hall? Yes.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
17:45
Representative Cheatham, your bill has passed. Congratulations. We are now adjourned because we're getting ready to take up and go back into session. Thank you all.
Agenda
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
Speaker 13
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
Speaker 3
Representative Eddie L. Cheatham
Unverified
Speaker 40
Representative Duncan Baird
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 58
Speaker 60
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
Speaker 67
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
Speaker 76
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 83
Speaker 87