AR SB885

Allows candidates requesting a recount to choose among three entities to perform the recount: the county board of election commissioners, at least three Department of Information Systems employees, or at least three designees from the electronic voting machine company (including Election Systems Software).

Requires designees from the Department of Information Systems or voting machine companies to have attended election training within 12 months before the election and perform the recount in the presence of the county board of election commissioners.

Maintains existing recount procedures for voter-verified paper audit trails and paper ballots, allowing manual summation or hand counting of votes.

Preserves cost requirements: candidates must pay recount costs upfront (capped at 25¢ per vote cast or $2,500 total per county, whichever is less), with refunds if the election outcome changes.

Requires the county board to notify all affected candidates within 48 hours of a recount petition filing and limits candidates to one recount per election.