Arkansas secretary of state candidate Bryan Norris has filed a lawsuit against Independence County, challenging the repeal of a voter-approved ordinance requiring hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Independence County Circuit Court, seeks a declaration that the county Quorum Court’s vote to repeal the ordinance was “unlawful, unconstitutional, and/or null and void.”
Independence County voters approved the ballot measure by more than 60% in November 2024. Norris collected signatures for the initiative and filed the petition.
The Quorum Court voted unanimously in December 2025 to repeal the ordinance, citing an Arkansas Supreme Court decision from October 2025 that established new filing deadlines for county initiative petitions.
County officials said in a statement to White River Now last week that the paper ballot petition had not met those requirements, noting that had the Supreme Court decision been issued sooner — before the 2024 election — its guidance would have prevented the initiative from being certified for placement on the ballot in the first place.
Bryan Norris, who led the petition effort and is now a Republican candidate for Arkansas Secretary of State, criticized the repeal in a Feb. 4 social media statement, saying the quorum court overturned the will of 63% of voters. He questioned why county officials would use what he called a legal technicality based on a Supreme Court ruling that didn’t exist when the petition was filed to nullify voters’ decision.
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Saturday, Norris said he was suing Quorum Court members for violating his and Independence County citizens’ constitutional rights. Nine members who voted to repeal the ordinance are named individually as defendants in the lawsuit filed by attorney Clint Lancaster.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages against each member, both personally and in their official capacity.
Norris, a Republican, is running for Arkansas secretary of state and has built his platform in part on advocating hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.
State Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, a fellow candidate for secretary of state, told the Democrat-Gazette that quorum court members are elected by the people, and the vote to reverse the measure was a “pretty strong indicator” of community feedback.
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