Commissioners Are Making Plans For School Election

BENTON COUNTY — Benton County election commissioners met recently to continue preparations for school board elections.

Election Commission Chairman Bill Williams reported a recently hired key employee of the commission has gotten off to a good start, Williams said after the meeting.

"I reported to (commission members) on what I had observed on the first week of Helen Peltier's performance, which was just absolutely astonishingly good," Williams said.

The commission, charged with conducting all elections in Benton County, recently recommended that Peltier be the new county election coordinator and Benton County Judge David Bisbee agreed.

The election coordinator manages the day-to-day operations of the Election Commission, supervises election activities and may be required to put in long hours during an election.

Peltier, who previously worked in the county clerical pool, had been working with the Election Commission since 2007 on pre-electionday planning, including ballot preparation and early voting, election-day support and troubleshooting.

Her experience showed as Peltier helped draw up an orientation plan for her new job, then began to implement it, Williams said.

Commissioners also talked about proposed ballots they received from an election-services company. Commissioners have finished proofreading the proposed ballots, final copies of which will be used for the Sept. 15 school board elections.