Arkansas Prepares for Paper Ballot Elections
Voting Machine Manufacturer Has No Readily Available or Cost Friendly Solution for Maintaining Certification of State's Machines
May 15, 2025
In an update to a previous story, Arkansas1st.com has learned the Secretary of State’s plan for elections considering the changes to voting machines required by President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14248. That EO, entitled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” had numerous provisions.
One provision of the EO is especially impactful for Arkansas. Section 4(b)(i), requires that the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an executive agency which creates the standards for voting machine certification, to change the current certification criteria. Currently, the certified voting system in Arkansas uses a tabulator that reads bar codes to tabulate the votes on a voter’s ballot.
Under the EO, the EAC is commanded by the President to change the certification standards such “that voting systems should not use a ballot in which a vote is contained within a barcode or quick-response code in the vote counting process.” This section of the EO must be implemented within 180 days from March 25, 2025.
Arkansas1st previously reported on the effect of this EO on our voting machines—no voting machine in Arkansas would be certifiable as currently configured. Arkansas1st reached out to the Secretary of State’s office for its plan on how it intended to comply with the EO but never received a response.
When the Secretary did not respond, Arkansas1st sent a FOIA request. The results of that request were received today.
A lobbyist from Election Systems & Software, LLC, (ESS), the manufacturer of all voting machines in Arkansas, informs the Secretary’s office that the state will need to purchase several Ballot On Demand (BOD) printers from ESS (as a side note, they must be purchased from ESS because the ESS tabulator can only accurately read the paper for which ESS has a patent and your everyday printer cannot properly print on ESS’s special paper).
Kevin Niehaus, Chief of Staff for Secretary Cole Jester, says that he does not think the state can cover the costs of all the needed printers, indicating that the Secretary’s office does not have a sufficient budget appropriation from the recently adjourned 2025 Legislative Session to purchase the BOD printers.
To that, ESS’s lobbyist seemingly admits that there is no viable solution for compliance other than ESS’s proprietary and high-cost BOD printers and that it does not have any other certifiable solution in hand. He asks, “what should ESS be thinking in terms of compliance with the requirements.” The response is telling.
Niehaus says, “at this point I’m not entirely certain. I think we are looking at a paper ballot election in Arkansas next year because there doesn’t seem to be a viable solution from ES&S and nobody is excited about that, especially Cole.”
The reference to Cole is most likely to none other than the Secretary himself, Cole Jester, especially since this email comes from Cole’s chief of staff. It is unclear whether the Secretary’s lack of excitement is about ESS’s inability to come up with a low-cost solution or a paper ballot election—or both.
Looking back to Jester’s announcement on his Facebook page on March 25, 2025, he only lauded the part of the EO about the Department of Homeland Security’s new requirement to share information on illegal aliens. Several of Jester’s constituents commented on the post about paper ballots and the need to immediately address the barcodes. Jester did not respond to those comments and has never expressed support for paper ballots in the past.
Over the past five years, numerous grassroots efforts by Arkansas citizens and the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, Inc., to move away from barcodes to hand-marked, hand counted paper ballots have been thwarted by the Republican Party of Arkansas, elected officials, and establishment Republicans.
This new move in election integrity comes only after President Trump left no choice for all states, including Arkansas, to move to a different voting system that does not rely on barcodes or quick-response codes.
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Attorney. America First. Sued Hunter Biden for child support. Represented President Trump in the 2020 Wisconsin election challenge. Former attorney for the Wisconsin Special Counsel. An official “Tough Cookie” per President Trump.
Many of us, as true conservatives, are gearing up to help and support a petition drive for an amendment to correct all the mess that was placed on the initiative process by the legislature this year. Even though I would not normally be partnering with some of those involved, this issue is about the fundamental voting rights of all the people. The people’s petition is a part of the fundamental voting rights for Arkansas citizens. Those great conservatives who have fallen by the wayside in the paper ballots issue to support the group in power, will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Paper ballots and crypto mining centers should be reminders to our legislators, to read and understand first, then have the courage to support your constituents.
I think it is a stroke of good luck that Arkansas may be using paper ballots. I also believe engaging ordinary citizens to become involved in that process is key to having a successful election. I suggest getting in touch with Cause of America who have a process that is ready to launch and start getting people trained.
Patrick, I think the state should take any help it can get to transition to this new era of voting. The Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, Inc., also has a wealth of resources. In fact, AVII’s resources resulted in Searcy County, Arkansas, have a 100% accurate hand count–a feat that the State Board of Election Commissioners said was pretty much impossible.
That said, the recommendation would come better from you than me as I don’t think I am on the Christmas card list at the moment.