Primary, court races go to polls in state today

Muriel Thomas of Little Rock votes on the last day of early voting before today’s primary elections.Thomas was one of more than 500 people who voted Monday, according to the Pulaski County Election Commission.
Muriel Thomas of Little Rock votes on the last day of early voting before today’s primary elections.Thomas was one of more than 500 people who voted Monday, according to the Pulaski County Election Commission.

— Voters head to the polls today to vote in the hundreds of election contests taking place across Arkansas.

Three separate elections will occur — a Democratic Party election to pick that party’s nominees for the general election; a Republican Party election to pick that party’s nominees for the general election; and a judicial election to pick judges for the court system.

Voters can cast ballots in either party election and the judicial election but cannot vote in both party elections. The party elections include picking nominees for the state’s four seats in the U.S. House.

Races include the presidential primary, where Chattanooga, Tenn., lawyer John Wolfe is challenging President Barack Obama in the Democratic primary and Texas Rep. Ron Paul is still trying to gain delegates against former Massachu- setts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are also on that GOP ballot.

There is a contested state Supreme Court race, along with four contested Court of Appeals races and five contested circuit judge races. Voters who just want to participate in the judicial races do not have to cast a ballot in either party’s primary.

Party control of the Arkansas Legislature will be at stake in the November election. Today there are five contested Republican primaries and six contested Democratic primaries for Senate seats. And there are a dozen contested Democratic primaries and eight Republican primaries for seats in the House.

The state Senate now has 20 Democrats and 15 Republicans. A majority is 18. The House of Representatives has 54 Democrats and 46 Republicans. A majority is 51.

Polling locations are to be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Early votes and absentee votes will be tallied after the polls close.

Because federal, state and local voting districts’ boundary lines changed this year in decennial redistricting, “it’s especially important this year that voters check their polling locations,” Secretary of State Mark Martin said Monday. “During the redistricting process, many people were transferred to new polling sites. Voters are required to vote in their correct precinct on election day, so please don’t wait to check your own information.”

A voter’s polling locations may be verified with the local county clerk or at www. voterview.org.

This year, people could early vote May 7 through Monday, including Saturdays, instead of on election day. Early voting ended at 6 p.m. Monday.

The party elections are called primary elections, held to determine which candidate will represent the party in the Nov. 6 general election. Today also is the general election for judicial races, which are nonpartisan.

If no candidate in a party election receives more than 50 percent of the vote today, a runoff will be held June 12 between the top two finishers. The runoff for judicial races will be Nov. 6.

Tonight the secretary of state’s office will report results on a new website that includes color coded maps of races statewide, by county or by precinct. It is online at www.votenaturally.org under the tab that reads “2012 Primary & Nonpartisan Judicial Elections — Summary Results.”

Martha Adcock, director of elections and associate counsel in the secretary of state’s office, has said the office expects faster election returns on the new site because county clerks can upload the results as they come in instead of waiting until all precincts have turned in their reports.

Martin spokesman Alex Reed said Martin doesn’t think that voter turnout will meet the previous projection that about 30 percent of the 1.53 million voters would turn out.

“The way the turnout has been going it seems like it’s going to be lower than that,” Reed said..

As of 5:30 p.m. Monday 88,343 people had voted.

Garland County Election Commission Chairman Ginna Watson echoed Reed, saying that early voting did not pick up in her county until Monday. Garland County is in the 4th Congressional District, where Republicans are looking to pick up the last seat in the state’s congressional delegation held by a Democrat.

She said that four years ago the county had as many as 1,300 people early-vote each day. She said this year has been closer to 350 people each day.

“It’s not near what it has been,” Watson said. “I don’t know if its voter apathy or if they are just waiting to see if there is a runoff.”

Watson said she is expecting a runoff in justice of the peace Position 10 and in the 4th Congressional District primaries, where three candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination and three are seeking the Republican nomination.

“Anytime you have popular people, three or more, running for office you expect a runoff. It doesn’t happen every time, but the expectation is there,” Watson said.

There were 125,475 early voters in the 2010 primary. In 2008 about 70,000 Arkansas voters turned out early.

In 2010, 29.18 percent of Arkansas voters turned out for the primary election. In 2008, 18 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the primary.

Melinda Allen, director of the Pulaski County Election Commission, said voting has gone smoothly so far, but with fewer votes being cast than in the 2010 preferential primary.

Allen said that as of noon Monday, 8,377 early and absentee votes had been cast in Pulaski County. In 2010, 15,480 votes were cast during the early-voting period.

“There are fewer races, maybe not as heated, specialinterest races. The turnout has been lower,” she said.

In 2010 there were Democratic and Republican primaries in the races for U.S. Senate and the 2nd Congressional District.

In addition to the Pulaski County Regional Building on Markham Street, there were eight “off-site” early-voting locations open in Pulaski County through Saturday. But the off-site locations were closed Monday to prepare for election day.

Allen also noted that voters can cast ballots in judicial elections even if they decline to vote in the Democratic of Republican primaries.

“The judicial candidates are on every ballot,” she said, adding that only people in the 6th Judicial District’s Subdistrict 6.2 in Pulaski County can vote in the race for circuit judge to represent that district.

Allen and Watson both said that early voting went smoothly in their counties.

Reed said that if problems do occur election day, most will be fixed at the county level by clerks or by election commissioners, not by the secretary of state.

“We’re all going to be here to take phone calls,” he said. But “there won’t be someone in every county. We’ll be just a call away for anybody who needs us.” The phone number for the secretary of state elections office is (501) 682-5070

In today’s primary elections, six candidates seek a chance to represent the 33-county 4th Congressional District, which is the largest in the state and has the most candidates seeking the spot.

The Republicans are Tom Cotton of Dardanelle, John Cowart of Texarkana and Beth Anne Rankin of Magnolia. The Democrats are Q. Byrum Hurst Jr. of Hot Springs, Gene Jeffress of Louann and D.C. Morrison of Little Rock.

Cotton campaign manager Doug Coutts said Cotton greeted employees during a shift change at Triumph Fabrications in Hot Springs on Monday and would greet voters at a polling place in Dardanelle today.

“We’re very excited and looking forward to the results,” Coutts said.

Cotton will watch the election results at The Austin Hotel in Hot Springs.

Rankin said she will be waving signs and calling voters from Hot Springs. She will watch the returns at a private farm in Magnolia.

“We’ve been campaigning for so long now, 10 months, we want to get out there very visibly to remind voters,” Rankin said.

Cowart said he would spend today waving signs on street corners and visiting polling places in Texarkana, Hot Springs and Malvern. He will wait for returns at Fish Creek restaurant in Texarkana.

Hurst will greet voters at Garland County polling places today and will watch returns at J&S Italian Villa in Hot Springs.

Jeffress will be at Harvey’s Grocery in Camden, and Morrison will be at the Hampton Inn in Pine Bluff.

Three Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination to take on U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford in the 1st Congressional District.

The Democratic candidates are Clark Hall, a state House member from Marvell; Scott Ellington of Jonesboro, the prosecuting attorney for the 2nd Judicial District; and Gary Latanich, an economics professor at Arkansas State University at Jonesboro.

Hall will spend the day traveling around the district and will cast his ballot in Marvell.

Ellington will travel to several polling sites around the district.

Latanich said he will remain in Jonesboro, visiting polling places and campaign volunteers.

All three will wait for returns tonight in Jonesboro: Hall and Ellington will watch at their respective campaign headquarters. Latanich will watch at home with supporters and family.

Election Day

Polling places are open today from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Need help? Call the secretary of state’s Elections Division at (800) 482-1127 or try the office’s website, votenaturally.org. Another option for those with questions about voting is to contact your county clerk’s office. In Pulaski County, call (501) 340-8336 for voter registration issues and (501) 340-8383 about polling locations. The county’s website is votepulaski.net.

For more election information, go to arkansasonline.com/ elections.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/22/2012

Upcoming Events