Colonel Conrad Reynolds

Tina Peters is coming home!

We are guest hosting the Doc Washburn Show today. 4:06-6pm

Then our show at 6:06 on 101.1 Little Rock.

Big win for Clint Lancaster on behalf of Bryan Norris at the Arkansas Supreme Court. The constitutional challenge to the law that allowed the Independence County Quorum Court to overturn the will of the people on paper ballots will have to be heard in Circuit court.

From ChatGPT:

This is a major procedural and constitutional win for Bryan Norris in the Independence County case.

The Arkansas Supreme Court filed its majority opinion in CV-26-116, 2026 Ark. 91, and the result is: “Reversed and remanded.” That means the Supreme Court overturned the Independence County Circuit Court’s dismissal and sent the case back to circuit court for further proceedings.

What the Supreme Court decided

The circuit court had dismissed Norris’s case because of Act 975 of 2025, which tried to move certain facial constitutional challenges out of circuit court and give “exclusive original jurisdiction” to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court said that is unconstitutional.

The Court held that:

1. Circuit courts have original jurisdiction.
Under Amendment 80, circuit courts are the trial courts of original jurisdiction for justiciable matters unless the Arkansas Constitution says otherwise.

2. The Court of Appeals has appellate jurisdiction, not original trial-court jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court said Amendment 80 gives the Court of Appeals appellate jurisdiction only, and the General Assembly cannot convert it into a trial court for facial constitutional challenges.

3. Act 975 crossed the constitutional line.
The Court said Act 975 “does precisely what Amendment 80 forbids” by removing a class of cases from circuit-court original jurisdiction and placing them in the Court of Appeals.

What this means for Bryan’s case

This does not mean the Supreme Court already ruled that the Independence County ordinance repeal was unlawful.

It means Bryan’s case was wrongly dismissed. The case is now alive again and goes back to the Independence County Circuit Court.

The claims can now proceed, including the arguments that:

The quorum court lacked authority to nullify the voter-approved ordinance.

Arkansas Code § 14-14-918(b), as used to repeal the ordinance, is unconstitutional.

The county’s actions violated civil rights.

A writ of mandamus should issue to enforce the voter-adopted ordinance.

What happens next

On remand, the circuit court will likely have to address the issues it never reached because it dismissed the case on jurisdiction. The Supreme Court specifically noted that other defenses—such as sovereign immunity, statutory immunity, service, personal jurisdiction, venue, and pleading sufficiency—were not decided and may be litigated back in circuit court.

Bottom line

This is a strong win because Bryan knocked out the jurisdictional wall that stopped the case. The Supreme Court said the Legislature cannot strip circuit courts of their constitutional authority to hear these kinds of constitutional challenges.

The case now goes back to Independence County Circuit Court, where the real fight over the ordinance repeal can continue.

The reported shooter at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Under the guidance of legal counsel and others I trust, this morning the Norris for Arkansas campaign filed for emergency relief and asked the court to preserve election materials and withhold certification of the Saline County election results while major issues are reviewed.

This filing is not about bitterness, and it is not about attacking the local election workers who may have been doing the best they could with the training and direction they were given. It is about whether the election and recount process in Saline County complied with Arkansas law, and whether the ballots reviewed can be reliably verified as the same ballots cast by the voters.

That is a serious matter. It deserves a careful, lawful, and orderly review.

From the beginning, my campaign for Secretary of State has been centered on a simple principle: elections should be secure, documented, transparent, and worthy of public trust. Laws on the books are important, but they only have meaning when they are enforced. Procedures only matter when they are followed. Records only protect the public when they are properly created, maintained, and available for review.

In the filing this morning, we asked the court to preserve the election materials, prevent certification until these issues can be reviewed, and ensure that the legal process can move forward in an orderly way. The proposed order submitted by counsel asks that election materials be secured and that certification be withheld pending further order of the court.

The filing raises concerns about whether the standards required by law were met in Saline County. At the heart of those concerns is chain of custody.

This issue is larger than a recount alone. It goes to whether there is a reliable and documented process to establish that the ballots seen later are the same ballots that were cast in the election. Without proper transfer records, proper seal verification, proper observation, and proper handling procedures, the public is left with uncertainty where there should be confidence.

That is not an allegation of fraud. It is a request for verification.

In any serious institution, chain of custody matters. In finance, missing records would not be brushed aside. In the military, secure handling would not be treated as optional. In any other important area of government, documented procedures would be understood as essential. Elections should be held to that same standard.

This is also an issue of training, supervision, and enforcement. The deficiencies we have identified do not simply raise questions about one worker or one table. They point to a broader need to ensure that election officials across Arkansas are properly trained in what the law requires and are held to a uniform standard of compliance.

A sworn affidavit filed with the case states that Saline County’s election coordinator advised that the tape used on ballot boxes came from a roll, that there were no numbered seals, and that the county had not been instructed to do otherwise. If true, that does not suggest bad faith by local workers. It suggests a deeper problem: a failure of training, procedure, and enforcement. Election integrity depends not only on having laws in place, but on making sure the people responsible for carrying them out are properly instructed and held to a uniform standard.

For some time, Arkansans have heard that our state ranks highly in election integrity. But rankings based on whether laws exist on paper are not enough. The real measure of election integrity is whether those laws are faithfully carried out in practice at the county level.

If Arkansas is going to claim a gold standard, then Arkansas must be willing to meet a gold standard.

There is also an important lesson in what we have seen in counties across our state. Washington County, Baxter County, White County, Grant County, and Saline County have all demonstrated that hand counting ballots as an audit process is both feasible and affordable. More importantly, it provides voters with greater peace of mind.

That is the standard Arkansas should strive for: hand-marked paper ballots protected by proper chain of custody, counted once by machine for efficiency, and then verified by human beings to ensure the machine was accurate.

That approach is not extreme. It is prudent.

It is similar to the way a bank operates. A machine may count the money, but a teller verifies the count before completing the transaction. The machine offers speed, but the human verification is what provides assurance. Elections deserve no less.

These hand-count audits have shown that when ballots are properly secured, when chain of custody is documented, and when human beings verify the machine totals, voters have greater confidence that the final count reflects the will of the people and that the ballots being counted are, in fact, the ballots that were cast.

That is the kind of confidence the public deserves.

This filing was made because the law should mean something. It was made because procedures should matter. It was made because voters should not be asked to accept uncertainty when the state has promised security, transparency, and accountability.

Long before I ever ran for office, I was fighting for the rights of Arkansans and for a government that follows the law and respects the people it serves. That commitment does not begin or end with one campaign or one election. It is a matter of principle, and it will continue.

I remain committed to pursuing this matter in a respectful and lawful manner. My goal is not to create division, but to insist on a system that is worthy of the trust of the people of Arkansas.

The voters of this state deserve elections that are not merely declared secure, but proven secure. They deserve elections that are not merely certified, but worthy of certification. And they deserve an election system that gives them confidence that the ballots counted truly reflect the will of the voters.

That is the standard I have fought for throughout this campaign, and that is the standard I will continue to defend.

——

(Please refer all media questions to counsel)

Apparently hand-counts are accurate, quick, and cheap!

We need to make sure these types of hand-count audits are done after every election in Arkansas. It gives a peace of mind to everyone.

If the ballots had been marked by hand, these would be gold-standard elections.

I am not conceding this race while recounts are underway, and I will not apologize for demanding a full and proper review in a race this close.

Arkansas has a recount process for a reason. It is there to make sure the people can have confidence that the final certified result is truly the will of the voters. When nearly half the state voted for our campaign, those voters deserve more than “just trust us.” They deserve a double-check. They deserve transparency. They deserve confidence.

That is not calling this a stolen election. That is called taking elections seriously.

I respect the election workers, county clerks, election commissioners, and coordinators who are doing their jobs. But respecting the people in the system does not mean we stop asking the system to meet the highest standard. In a close race, verification is not disrespect. It is duty.

And no matter what happens when the recounts are complete, one thing is still true: touchscreen voting machines remain the weak link. Arkansas voters deserve better than a system that leaves room for doubt, confusion, and uncertainty about voter intent. We should move to hand-marked paper ballots so every voter can clearly mark their choice and every recount can review the actual marks made by the voter.

That is how you build trust. That is how you strengthen elections. That is how you honor the people.

We will let the recount process move forward. We appreciate those carrying it out. But this fight has never just been about one race. It is about whether Arkansas is willing to demand an election system worthy of the people it serves. I am, and I will keep fighting for it.