LITTLE ROCK — After more than 284,000 early and absentee ballots were cast in the weeks leading up to Election Day, polling places have opened and Arkansans across the state are choosing candidates for a range of local, state and federal elections.
Voters will pick a representative in all four congressional districts and decide a Senate race that polls suggest leans heavily toward the Republican challenger. Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, meanwhile, is favored in his race for a second term against Republican Jim Keet.
It rained throughout the day, including a sporadic drizzle in central Arkansas, which might play a factor for voters heading out to the polls.
At Fire Station No. 10 on Kavanaugh Blvd. in the Heights, more than 20 people were lined up before polls opened and the crowd quickly grew as the ballot machines fired up.
Bruce Sanderson, who arrived 30 minutes early, was first in line. After casting his ballot, he said he voted for Republicans as a "wake-up call Washington," in part because of the way President Barack Obama's health care bill was passed. Sanderson faulted Sen. Blanche Lincoln for her vote on that bill and said he was specifically "voting against" her by casting his ballot for Republican John Boozman.
"My major concern is the American way of life," he said. "I'm disturbed by the direction we've been going in the last couple years."
Henrietta Farr, another of the first at the fire station to cast her ballot, said she voted for Democrats including Beebe, Lincoln and 2nd Congressional District hopeful Joyce Elliott, who faces Republican Tim Griffin.
Farr said she did not like how closely Lincoln has been aligned with Obama, but she voted for her anyway.
"I just couldn't help it," Farr said after emerging from the voting area in the station's garage. "She's done a lot of good things."
Lincoln voted alongside her husband at two sons shortly after 10 a.m. at St. John's United Methodist Church (VIDEO). She dismissed her poor showings in recent polls and said she intended to win.
"They're only polls and they are a snapshot," Lincoln said just before voting. "They are a snapshot and usually they are a snapshot of a picture somebody wants to create."
Boozman voted around the same time in Rogers and was visiting his other before returning for a Republican watch party in Little Rock.
Farr said she supported Beebe because he's shown he's for "the working-class people" and for Elliott because of her background as an educator.
Another of the initial voters in the Heights, Barbara Cobb, declined to say who she supported, but said her ballot reflected a lot of studying on both ends of the political spectrum. She favors candidates who won't try to change the constitution, she said.
"I try to listen to both sides," she said. "There's good people on both sides and there's bad people on both sides."
Only a handful of people were voting at the Arkansas Arts Center in downtown Little Rock around 8:30 a.m. But among them was Jackie Conger, a medical student at UAMS filling out her ballot before a 9 a.m. class.
Conger said health care was her biggest issue since she's working to become a doctor. Reform is needed, she said, but the bill Lincoln supported wasn't the way to do it, so she voted for Boozman.
"I agree that everybody needs health care, but I didn't really like the way it's been gone about," she said. "And I liked what Boozman stood for too."
Conger said she appreciated recent legislation Lincoln supported to equalize Medicare payment for Arkansas doctors, but that it wasn't enough to sway her vote.
Conger's husband, Matt Conger, said he favored candidates who oppose socializing government. He liked Boozman and independent Trevor Drown in the Senate race and Griffin over Elliott, he said.
"He seemed like a guy who had good moral values and someone who I wanted to be on a team with," Matt Conger said of Griffin, citing his military experience.
Edison de Leon described himself as an independent who is "more green than blue and definitely not red." He said his ballot at the Arts Center included no Republicans.
De Leon said his votes in part reflected a frustration with the national perception that this year will be big for Republicans.
"I just got tired of hearing that," he said.
Polls will remain open until 7:30 p.m. Anyone standing in line then will be allowed to vote.
This article was originally published at 8 a.m.