Bryan Norris on Election Integrity, Paper Ballots & Arkansas' 2026 Secretary of State Race

Episode notes

Bryan Norris spent 21 years in the military before coming home to Independence County and leading a citizen initiative to bring back paper ballots, an effort that passed with 63% of the vote before the county's quorum court overturned it. That fight eventually led him to run for Arkansas Secretary of State, where he lost the Republican runoff by fewer than 1,000 votes despite facing opposition from much of the state's Republican establishment. In this episode, host Andy McNeill talks with Bryan about that campaign, what he says he learned about voting machine security from computer scientists he consulted during the ballot fight, and what it was like campaigning across all five regions of Arkansas and hearing directly from voters in each one. They also discuss citizen-led constitutional amendments, the role of out-of-state money in Arkansas campaigns, and ideas for growing the state's economy by attracting more business investment. If you want to understand the debate over election security and citizen initiatives happening in Arkansas right now, this conversation lays out one side of it directly from someone who lived it. In this conversation:

• •The Independence County paper ballot fight and its reversal
• •Running a statewide campaign against the political establishment
• •Claims and debates around electronic voting machine security
• •Citizen-led ballot initiatives and legislative pushback
• •Ideas for attracting business investment to Arkansas