Colonel Conrad Reynolds

Arkansas GOP runs off the best election commissioners in the state.

SEARCY COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION RESIGNS

Sept. 18, 2026; Marshall, AR – All three members of the Searcy County Election Commission, both Republicans and one Democrat, resigned today due to concerns over inaccurate voter lists and potential unjust reprisal from the State Board of Election Commissioners.
Earlier this year the commission, working with the state’s GIS office and strongly encouraged by the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissions, oversaw a redistricting effort that reduced the county’s election precincts from 15 to seven. The commission was assured the process of assigning voters to the newly designated precinct parts would be simple, straightforward, and easily accomplished within the given time frame. However, as coordinators began preparing ballots they noticed potential errors in voter distribution and precinct designations.

When notified, the County Clerk’s Office, which is solely responsible for adjusting the voter list and precinct numbering, assured the commissioners that everything was correct and they could move forward with the ballot process. It soon became obvious there were significant errors and so the commission contacted the Secretary of State’s office and the State Board. Attempts to correct the many errors in the reassignment of voters and precinct parts put ballot completion two weeks late, pushing against several legal deadlines.

In an emergency meeting between the commissioners and Chris Madison, director of the State Board, the commissioners expressed their concern that they could not be assured voters would be assigned the correct ballots. Since working in the voter database, Power Profile, is off limits to commissioners, they asked about their liability if voters were given the wrong ballots on election day. Madison pointed out that commissioners and clerks were equally responsible for providing correct ballots to the county’s voters and they would be held equally liable if the law was violated.

After researching the relevant law, ACA 7-1-104(a)(13), the commissioners learned that “knowingly giving the wrong ballot” is a class D felony, punishable by up to six years in jail and fines of up to $10,000.

Laurie Gross, chairman of the Searcy County Commission, said, “In most cases, and working on a level playing field, I would simply buckle down and do what I have been trained to do to ensure that did not happen. That is my job. However, over the past three years the State Board has, withheld important training and then punished us for not knowing obscure facts, falsely accused us, attempted to decertify us, and threatened to prosecute us for ethics violations they must have known did not occur. Although we have successfully defended against and been absolved of the Board’s accusations in the past, I cannot in good conscience risk another round of accusations, court appearances, attorney costs, and the incredible amount of time such activities steal from all the other responsibilities in my life.”

Commissioner Ken Weekly said, “The Searcy County Election Commissioners and coordinators do not control or have direct access to the ES&S Power Profile program, nor can they enter this data or directly verify its accuracy. Access to the program and responsibility for accurate data entry rest with the County Clerk’s office. Although the Commission has no authority over the Clerk’s office we are still being held accountable for ensuring that every voter receives the correct ballot. Any violation of Arkansas Election Law can be construed as a Class D felony. I personally will not undergo a repeat of past allegations, accusations, and charges inflicted by the Arkansas State Election Commission that as a sole entity generates their own complaints, issues charges, then investigates, prosecutes, and sanctions county election commissioners.”

Commissioner LC Ratchford added, “I submit my resignation begrudgingly after learning changes that should have been made to the database that delineates voter assignments into their appropriate precincts may not be accurate. The Searcy County Election Commission does not have access to correct these discrepancies nor authority over the office that does and, having experienced a continuing lack of support from the State Board of Election Commissioners, I feel I have no choice but to resign a job I truly love and thought I would be doing for many years to come.”

All three commissioners expressed regret for being forced into this decision to protect themselves from the type of selective prosecution they have previously experienced from the State Board and because they have no way of knowing whether or not the database has been corrected.
election commissioners.”

The Communist Republican Party of Arkansas is going out of its way to remove the good guys while protecting the bad ones.

We have a decorated veteran removed and also successful Christian businessman who is an election commissioner working on safe elections kicked out - but not the guy who allegedly did horrible and unspeakable things to his wife.

DHS has formally questioned whether voting systems that count votes from barcodes and QR codes comply with the mandatory paper-record and manual-audit requirements of federal law.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, DHS has formally asked the Attorney General whether voting systems that count votes from barcodes comply with federal law. Why should Arkansas wait for litigation to begin before reducing its dependence on those barcodes when we can use hand-marked paper ballots and still keep our existing scanners and accessible equipment?

It’s time to make elections secure again.

🚨 Arkansas Should Apply Its Tough-on-China Standard to Election Security 🚨

DHS warning on Chinese-made voting-system components creates an opportunity for Arkansas to lead with immediate risk mitigation before November

CONWAY, Ark. — August 27, 2026 — Colonel Conrad Reynolds, U.S. Army (Ret.), today called for Arkansas officials to move quickly on election-security risk mitigation following the release of a Department of Homeland Security letter warning about foreign-adversary components in American voting systems.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin wrote that voting machines containing components manufactured by foreign adversaries create “significant security risks.” DHS warned that a compromised component could provide hackers an entry point into election infrastructure and potentially allow coordinated attacks across multiple machines and jurisdictions.
The warning has direct importance for Arkansas.
The Arkansas Secretary of State says Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is the voting-equipment vendor used across Arkansas, with every county operating within the state’s integrated voting system. Secretary Mullin’s letter identifies ES&S as one of the major voting-system companies whose representatives previously acknowledged that their machines contain parts made in China.
“Arkansas does not need to panic, and we do not need to throw every voting machine in the state into a dumpster,” Reynolds said. “We need to do what national-security professionals do when a credible vulnerability is identified: mitigate the risk before somebody proves the vulnerability can be exploited.”
Arkansas Has Already Taken This Approach With China
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has established a strong record of treating Chinese-controlled technology and assets as national-security risks.
Under her leadership, Arkansas became the first state to force a Chinese state-owned company to divest agricultural land. The Governor has also signed legislation restricting public entities from purchasing drones manufactured or assembled by covered foreign entities such as China and Russia.
Arkansas did not wait for a Chinese-owned farm to be used against the state before addressing the risk. It did not wait for a Chinese drone to cause a security breach before restricting the technology.
Reynolds said election infrastructure deserves the same preventative approach.
“Governor Sanders has been one of the strongest governors in America when it comes to protecting Arkansas from the Chinese Communist Party,” Reynolds said. “She understood that we should not wait for Chinese-controlled farmland or Chinese-made technology to become a national-security disaster before taking reasonable precautions. Secretary Mullin has now identified the same type of supply-chain risk in voting equipment. Arkansas has an opportunity to apply the Governor’s own national-security standard to our elections.”
This Is Risk Mitigation — Not a Blanket Machine Ban
Reynolds emphasized that the immediate goal should not be to replace every voting system weeks before the federal election.
Arkansas law already provides pathways for elections using paper ballots with electronic tabulators while maintaining accessible voting machines for voters with disabilities.
That creates a practical path forward:
Voters mark a physical paper ballot by hand wherever possible.
Existing electronic tabulators can provide the first count.
Accessible voting equipment remains available for voters who need it.
Ballots remain secured through strict chain-of-custody procedures.
Electronic systems are hardened and unnecessary network or remote access is removed.
The physical ballots are independently checked against the electronic totals before certification.
“We can keep the speed of the electronic first count without making the electronic system the only source of truth,” Reynolds said. “That is common-sense redundancy. If the machine is right, the human verification confirms it. If something is wrong, we find it before the result becomes final.”
Five Immediate Steps for Arkansas
Reynolds suggested that Governor Sanders bring together the Secretary of State, State Board of Election Commissioners, county election officials, Arkansas cybersecurity officials, CISA, and other appropriate state and federal partners for an immediate election-infrastructure risk review.
The review should focus on five near-term actions:
1. Identify the supply-chain exposure.�Request complete information on the hardware, firmware, software, manufacturers, countries of origin, update systems, remote-support capabilities, and other critical components used in Arkansas election equipment.
2. Ask CISA for immediate technical assistance.�Verify actual network paths, remote-access capabilities, administrative access, logging, removable-media controls, and whether systems assumed to be isolated are actually isolated.
3. Expand hand-marked paper wherever operationally possible before November.�Arkansas law already allows paper ballots to be tabulated electronically while accessible machines remain available.
4. Independently verify the electronic count.�Do not rely on an arbitrary small percentage when a federal contest is close. Use enough human verification of the physical ballots to establish confidence that the electronic result is correct before certification.
5. Pursue available federal election-security funding immediately.�DHS, CISA, FEMA, and other federal programs should be asked to support cybersecurity hardening, paper-ballot implementation, training, testing, and the personnel necessary for meaningful verification.
Secretary Mullin Has Changed the Risk Picture
Mullin’s letter says China remains a major cyber threat to U.S. critical infrastructure and cites an intelligence assessment finding that China, Iran, and Russia possess the technical capability to access some U.S. election-related networks and systems.
The letter further says additional responsive records are still being identified and reviewed for possible declassification.
“There is still intelligence the public has not seen,” Reynolds said. “That means we take seriously what the Secretary of Homeland Security is willing to say publicly right now.”
Secretary Mullin concluded his letter with a straightforward statement:
“There is no question that election security is national security.”
Reynolds agreed.
“That should be the starting point for Arkansas,” Reynolds said. “Our elections are critical infrastructure. If the federal government identifies a foreign supply-chain risk in critical infrastructure, the responsible answer is not to wait for evidence of a successful attack. The responsible answer is to reduce the vulnerability.”
Arkansas Can Lead
Reynolds said Arkansas is particularly well positioned to demonstrate how election security can be strengthened without disrupting the November election.
“This does not have to become a partisan fight and it does not require Arkansas to abandon everything it already has,” Reynolds said. “It requires layers of protection. Keep accessibility. Keep the electronic first count. Put trustworthy paper underneath it. Secure the technology. Verify the result.”
“Governor Sanders has already shown that Arkansas can lead the country when China presents a national-security risk,” Reynolds added. “The course of action now is straightforward: apply that same standard to the infrastructure that counts our votes.”

Your move, Sarah Huckabee Sanders! We need to move to a hand-marked paper ballot and robust audits before certification- IMMEDIATELY!

Homeland Security warns of Chinese parts in election machines, will require paper ballot audits The Department of Homeland Security is mandating random paper ballot audits for upcoming elections, citing significant security risks posed by Chinese-manufactured components in widely-used voting machines.

This afternoon the Democrat-Gazette reported finding internal emails stating the Franklin county
Mega prison disaster has been cancelled. Now the state is looking into expanding other facilities.

This is exactly what I have been saying for decades. Unfortunately for the citizens of Arkansas, Gov. Sanders and Senator Bart Hester mislead the people of Arkansas by pushing a financial disaster and a disaster plan that would not make Arkansans safer.

As President Truman said the buck stops here. Governor Sanders and Senator Hester are woefully incompetent.

I already have a financially responsible plan that benefit all Arkansans not just political profiteers.

💔 REMEMBERING WHITE COUNTY JUDGE LISA BROWN

White County is mourning the loss of County Judge Lisa Brown, who died Tuesday night at the age of 59.

Brown dedicated decades of her life to public service and White County government. Long before becoming county judge, she served as an administrative assistant to former White County Judges Bob Parish and Michael Lincoln, building a reputation for her knowledge, experience and dedication to the people she served.

Former White County Judge and Searcy Mayor David Morris remembered watching Brown grow up riding horses and later working closely with her throughout their careers in public service.

Morris described Brown as “one of the most qualified and best county judges, not only in White County, but in the entire state.”

Former White County Judge Michael Lincoln, who worked alongside Brown for 16 years, also remembered her remarkable knowledge of county government and the trust he placed in her judgment.

His memories included a humorous story about a former school board member who noticed how often Lincoln turned to Brown to make sure he had the right answer.

The man told Lincoln he had always surrounded himself with people smarter than he was.

Lincoln replied that smart people made him look good.

It was a lighthearted story, but one that spoke volumes about the respect Brown earned from those who worked beside her.

From working behind the scenes in county government to eventually leading White County as its county judge, Lisa Brown devoted a significant part of her life to serving the community she called home.

Today, White County remembers not only Judge Lisa Brown, but a friend, colleague and dedicated public servant whose impact will be remembered for years to come.

Our thoughts are with her family, friends, coworkers and the many people across White County whose lives she touched.

🕊️ Rest in peace, Judge Lisa Brown.

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