A December 2025 email obtained through a public records request shows Independence County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Haney sent talking points to every Justice of the Peace, the County Clerk, and the County Judge, coaching them on how to use a recent court ruling to reject the voter-approved paper ballot initiative — and how to repeal it entirely if it survived.
The email, dated December 2, 2025, was provided by Justice of the Peace Brent Henderson in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed February 23, 2026. It shows Haney writing to all 12 Justices of the Peace, County Clerk Tracey Mitchell, and County Judge Kevin Jeffery simultaneously, advising them on legal strategy to defeat the citizen-passed paper ballot ordinance.
What the Document Shows
The subject line of Haney’s email reads: “Talking points and proposed ordinance in light of Ark Supreme Court Ruling.”
In it, Haney told the full Quorum Court that the recent Arkansas Supreme Court decision in Evans v. Harrison provided a legal basis to reject the paper ballot petition entirely. According to Haney’s email:
“For county initiative petitions, there is a 90-day filing requirement. Petitions that do not comply with that 90-day deadline must be rejected. In our case, the petitions for the Independence County paper-ballot initiative were filed 91 days before the November 5 election. Under Evans v. Harrison, those petitions would not have complied with the filing requirement and would have been rejected.”
Haney then went further, advising elected officials that even if the initiative survived legal challenge, the Quorum Court could eliminate it through a legislative vote:
“The quorum court has authority under Ark. Code Ann. § 14-14-918 to repeal an initiative by a two-thirds roll-call vote of the entire quorum court.”
The email was sent to all 12 Justices of the Peace: Kenny Hurley, Dennis Stephens, Jason Jones, Brent Henderson, Tammy Pearce, Johnathan Abbott, Tim Stewart, Charles Jordan, Brad Covington, John McMullin, Cliff Barnett, and an eleventh member, as well as Tracey Mitchell and Kevin Jeffery.
Why This Matters
Independence County voters signed petitions placing a paper ballot ordinance before the Quorum Court. The ordinance required Independence County to adopt hand-marked paper ballots for elections. Citizens gathered signatures, met filing requirements, and submitted the petition through the lawful initiative process.
Rather than allowing elected officials to vote independently on whether to comply with the will of their constituents, the county’s own attorney pre-briefed the entire Quorum Court with unified legal arguments for rejection — before any public meeting took place.
Haney did not draft talking points for residents who supported the ordinance. He drafted them for the officials who would vote against it.
The two-thirds repeal option Haney outlined would allow 12 elected officials to permanently override a citizen initiative without another public vote.
How This Document Was Obtained
IndependenceWatch.com filed a Freedom of Information Act request on February 23, 2026 directly to Justice of the Peace Brent Henderson, requesting communications regarding county business and FOIA requests submitted to Independence County. Henderson responded the same day by forwarding the December 2, 2025 Haney email, along with approximately 20 other Quorum Court documents.
Henderson’s compliance with the FOIA request is notable. He is one of the few Independence County officials who responded promptly and substantively to a direct FOIA request.
A Pattern Across Counties
This is not an isolated incident. A separate FOIA response received the same week from Sharp County Clerk Alisa Black revealed that Sharp County officials also contacted the Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC) in July 2024 when paper ballot petitions were about to be filed in that county.
In that email, Sharp County Clerk staff wrote to Lindsey French at the AAC:
“Our clerk, Alisa Black, asked me to contact you concerning petitions about paper ballots that are about to be filed in our office next week. We have talked to one of our Deputy Prosecutors and he referred us to your office.”
The AAC — a taxpayer-funded organization — appears to have served as a coordinating hub for multiple counties responding to paper ballot initiatives. Previous IndependenceWatch reporting documented Haney’s direct coordination with AAC attorney Colin Jorgensen on the Independence County legal challenge.
What Independence County Officials Have Said
County Judge Kevin Jeffery, who received Haney’s December 2 email, has not responded to questions about the Quorum Court’s deliberations on the paper ballot ordinance. He is among the recipients of the talking points email.
County Clerk Tracey Mitchell, also a recipient, acknowledged in a February 2026 FOIA response that she copies the county attorney on all FOIA replies. She has not addressed the substance of Haney’s pre-briefing of elected officials.
Daniel Haney has not responded to a request for comment on this article. IndependenceWatch.com sent a FOIA request to Haney on February 21, 2026 requesting all communications regarding FOIA requests submitted by Bryan Norris and IndependenceWatch.com. That request has not been fulfilled as of publication.
Source Documents
- Haney talking points email (Dec 2, 2025): Obtained via FOIA response from JP Brent Henderson, February 23, 2026
- Sharp County AAC coordination email (Jul 26, 2024): Obtained via FOIA response from Sharp County Clerk Alisa Black, February 23, 2026
- Related coverage: How the AAC Used Your Tax Dollars to Fight Your Right to Vote
IndependenceWatch.com is a government accountability journalism project focused on Independence County and Batesville, Arkansas. All reporting is based on primary source documents obtained through public records requests. Tips and documents can be submitted anonymously at IndependenceWatch.com/tips.