I voted early. Did you?

The Morning News

Local News for Northwest Arkansas


Turnout heavy on first day of early voting

By John Lyon
THE MORNING NEWS
Turnout in Arkansas was heavy on the first day of early voting for the Nov. 4 general election, with long lines forming at some polling places. Just more than 3,400 people in Washington and Benton counties voted early, the county clerks said.

By 5 p.m. Monday, 21,560 people had voted at early voting locations around the state and 9,689 had returned absentee ballots, said Natasha Naragon, spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office.

"Turnout definitely was very brisk today and very steady, and also fortunately very smooth in terms of voters having no problems at the polls other than a short wait," Naragon said.

Secretary of State Charlie Daniels has predicted that between 65 percent and 70 percent of the state's 1.68 million registered voters will cast a ballot in the election -- or more than 1.1 million people.

Washington County Clerk Karen Combs Pritchard said she's spent many sleepless nights planning for early voting to ensure voters have a smooth experience.

"We have been incredibly busy. I'm not surprised though," she said. "We've got great people working. Things have gone smoothly."

The 1,412 who cast early votes in Washington County represent about 1.4 percent of the county's 100,000 registered voters. About 300 of those early votes were cast at the county's first off-site voting location, the Springdale Rodeo Community Center.

Benton County Clerk Mary Lou Slinkard said turnout was a little higher than usual Monday at the county's four early voting locations. Roughly 2,005 voters cast ballots, with the highest traffic of 887 voters in the clerk's office in Bentonville, said Christine Southard, election administrator with the clerk's office.

Slinkard said she couldn't compare the turnout with early voting in the 2004 presidential election because the county used a different computer system then.

Combs Pritchard said about 760 people voted on the first day of early voting in 2004. During that election, the number of voters grew each weekday until the election. Combs Pritchard said she expects the same trend this season.

In addition to the presidential race, high-profile items on the ballot include a proposed constitutional amendment to create a state-run lottery to fund college scholarships for Arkansas students and a proposed ballot initiative to ban unmarried couples living together from adopting or serving as foster parents.

In Pulaski County, some voters waited 1 1/2 hours or even two hours to vote, said Susan Inman, director of elections for the Pulaski County Election Commission. About 5,000 people had voted early by 6 p.m., said Melinda Allen, assistant election commission director.

"That's huge. That's unprecedented," Inman said.

More than 1,200 people had voted early at the Sebastian County courthouses in Fort Smith and Greenwood by late afternoon, said Deputy County Clerk Angie Hatwig.

"That is really high for a first day," she said.

If Daniels' turnout prediction comes true, that would make turnout the highest since 1992, when then-Gov. Bill Clinton's race for the White House helped drive more than 72 percent of Arkansas voters to the polls. In 2004, 63 percent of the voters cast ballots in the presidential election.

The Morning News' Anna Fry and Christopher Spencer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.