Arkansas AG announces eight arrests in Phillips County election fraud case

A Phillips County quorum court race is now at the center of a felony election-fraud case after Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced eight arrests tied to the 2024 primary runoff for Justice of the Peace District 9. The case reaches beyond one seat: it raises fresh questions about how county voters can trust the rolls, the runoff process and the legitimacy of local representation on the body that helps write county law and shape the budget.

Griffin said Lita Moore Johnson, 62, a Marvell School District teacher who won the runoff, was charged with two counts of solicitation to commit perjury, a Class D felony. Prosecutors allege Johnson told multiple voters to illegally change the address on their voter registration so they could vote for her in the runoff. The other seven defendants were charged with perjury, a Class C felony, after allegedly changing their registration addresses and voting in the District 9 precinct even though they lived elsewhere.

The seven named in the case were Mearion Armstrong, 68; Cordelia Foster, 60, an elementary teacher at KIPP Public School in Helena; Shirley Hicks, 56, a custodian at Barton School District; Jasean Smith, 30, a teacher at Central High School in Helena and pastor of Galilee Church; Adam Swopes, 26, a lieutenant with the Arkansas Department of Corrections; Rachel Gamble Sykes, 56, an Arkansas Crime Information Center coordinator for the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office; and Jocelyn Washington, 39, who works at the Phillips County Development Center.

Griffin’s office said agents in the Special Investigations Division obtained the arrest warrants on March 5, 2026. The defendants later turned themselves in to the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office over the prior two weeks, and arraignments were scheduled for April 20, 2026.

The Phillips County Quorum Court is the county’s legislative branch under Amendment 55, and its justices of the peace are elected from districts for two-year terms. That makes a District 9 runoff more than a local contest for one office: it is a vote for who helps steer county policy, spending and representation. Griffin said, “Keeping Arkansas’s elections the most secure in the country requires vigilance and perseverance,” and thanked both his Special Investigations Division and Special Prosecutions Division for their work.