Benton auditor hires armed security while verifying signatures in sheriff’s recall

Two armed security officers have been hired by the Benton County Auditor’s Office as elections employees work to verify more than 16,500 signatures in the recall effort against Sheriff Jerry Hatcher.

Lorene Roe, chief deputy auditor, said the contract with Phoenix Protective Services Corporation costs about $5,900 from the Election Reserve Fund.

“Due to the high profile nature of this, and the fact that we’ve successfully used security in the past for the general election, we have chosen to use security for the signature checking process,” Roe said at this week’s Benton County Commission meeting.

The contract was unanimously approved by the three commissioners.

The uniformed officers will provide security at Richland’s Benton County Voting Center through May 4.

That gives auditor’s office staff six business days — including Saturday — to go page-by-page and line-by-line as they check each name, date of birth and signature on the petition against the registration record in their system.

They have 822 signature-filled pages to review, and estimated it would take between 5 and 10 days to complete.

The verification process started Wednesday morning. It is open to the public, and at least two people showed up on the first day to observe.

Recall allegations

Hatcher — who is about to enter his fifth year as the Benton County sheriff — is accused in eight charges of intimidating witnesses and public servants in investigations, retaliating against them, tampering with physical evidence and violating his oath of office.

He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and has insisted he will be exonerated of any criminal allegations and retained by county voters.

The “Committee to Recall Sheriff Hatcher” had six months to gather at least 13,937 signatures of registered voters to get the petition certified and the recall on a ballot.

If Auditor Brenda Chilton determines they have enough signatures to move forward, she will call for a special election in late June or add it to the August primary election. It is expected to cost the county up to $250,000.

On Tuesday, Commissioner Will McKay asked if this is the first time the office has hired security.

Roe said they had a “law enforcement presence” during the presidential election last November, and “there were multiple occasions it was needed.”

She added that the office wants to be prepared just in case they get crowds during this process of the rare recall. The security officers will provide a proactive approach to deter and detect any activity that could disrupt staff from doing their jobs.

The office had to hire a private, out-of-state company because they were unsuccessful in finding someone local, said Roe.

This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 12:56 PM.