Bill to let 10 citizens pay for recounts, require hand counts draws debate and stalls for lack of quorum

Senate Bill 430, which would allow a group of 10 qualified electors to request and prepay a recount (including hand counts) and would tie recounts to the ability to bring an election contest, drew both support and operational concerns and ultimately did not advance because of lack of quorum.

Sponsor and supporters argued the change would provide citizens a discovery tool to check whether ballots were counted properly and would discourage frivolous lawsuits by requiring a recount before an election contest. "This bill has to do with recounts and, and how we do recounts and ultimately do election contest," the presenter said. The bill would require prepayment of recount costs by the petitioning group and require counties to pay poll workers at higher rates for recounts, with unused funds refundable to payors.

County election officials warned the measure could be burdensome in jurisdictions using vote centers and where hundreds of ballot styles exist; Faulkner County's coordinator described a prior recount and said the bill's 12-hour-per-day cap and other provisions could make timely completion difficult. "There's nothing in this bill that prohibits a citizen from requesting a recount of every race on every ballot of all precincts," she told the committee, and warned such a provision could create operational chaos.

The sponsor said the bill would not impose net county costs because prepayments would cover recount expenses and could increase pay for poll workers. Committee discussion continued but the committee later said it lacked a quorum and several bills, including SB430, died or will be rescheduled.

Because no final committee vote was recorded before the quorum issue, the bill did not advance out of committee at this hearing.