By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The three members of the St. Francis County Election Committee agreed Tuesday to take no action toward the hiring of an election coordinator.
The group agreed to allow St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco and St. Francis County Election Commission Chairman Joe Young to decide who would assume the position for future elections.
According to Young, election commissioners wanted to continue to use the current election coordinator Judy Armstrong. Young told committee members that an agreement had been reached with Armstrong which would pay her $1,500 per general and primary election; $800 for the school election and an additional $300 for any runoffs. In June, the quorum court passed an ordinance which would create the position for the remainder of the year and once appropriated would pay a total of $6,000 for the job.
"This is a very important position in our county, and we need to make sure that we've got someone that we, as commissioners, can work with. We've had enough problems with the election without having to use someone who we're not comfortable or familiar with. We're very happy with the job that Judy has done for us and we want her to continue in the position," said Young.
Committee member and quorum court justice Regan Hill agreed with Young on the importance of the position but Hill also felt that the person who is charged with the duties should be someone who could dedicate themselves to the job fully.
"This is a very touchy issue, and I've got concerns I know with whomever takes the job if they aren't 100-percent dedicated. My major concern is that whomever gets the position doesn't have any outside concerns such as a full-time job that they already have which might cause delays or problems with deadlines and such," Hill said.
Armstrong is currently employed at Easley, Hicky and Hudson law firm.
Questions over who held the responsibility for hiring a coordinator were also raised.
"I don't want to run contrary to the wishes of the election commission and if we follow our normal practices, we create a department and let the department head handle the hiring and firing. This would fall under that, and I think it would then be the duty of the election commission," said committee member Henry Wilkinson.
Young also attempted to answer questions over the cost of the May primary and runoff election. Hill questioned Young over an invoice from the company responsible for printing the ballots which totals over $22,000. According to Young, the cost of the ballots was out of line with figures paid in previous elections.
"If that's the figure, then it's well out of line with what we've paid for ballots for other elections. Normally, we pay between 20 or 30 cents per ballot. That would put us at close to $1 per ballot which would be wrong," Young said.
Hill also questioned Young on the number of ballots ordered for the election. According to Hill, close to 18,000 ballots were ordered for the May 21, primary, but Hill also said that there were only 15,000 registered voters in St. Francis County.
"The number of ballots ordered is done on a percentage basis, and I don't know how we could have been off by that much. We just had a mess of things with this last election. We had problems with everything from the redistricting to the census and everything. That's one of the reasons why I feel that we need a coordinator," Young said.
According to the invoice from Election Systems and Software, Inc. of Omaha, Neb., charges were accumulated for 18,595 at a cost of $1 per ballot. The total cost for ballots was $22,123.37. According to St. Francis County Clerk Elizabeth Smith, there are 16,429 registered voters in St. Francis County.
According to Hill, the May primary and runoff election already stood $5,300 over budget without any payments for the ballots.