Election Day under way as polls open

LITTLE ROCK — Election Day is under way as polling locations across Arkansas opened Tuesday for voters to decide on races from local leaders to president of the United States.

At the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, about 50 people were in line to vote when the doors opened at 7:30 a.m., and a steady stream of voters arrived as the morning progressed.

Nathaniel Davis, a 64-year-old retiree from Little Rock, was first in line after getting to the polling location about 45 minutes early. He said he voted for President Barack Obama.

"Everything was messed up when the man came into office," Davis said. "All this stuff that's going on didn't happen under him."

Others chose former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Mark Stephens, a 30-year-old industrial radiographer, said he voted for the Republican presidential nominee and for 2nd District Rep. Tim Griffin because of their support for the Keystone Pipeline.

Stephens was working for Welspun in Little Rock when the project was nixed under Obama, which he said cost him his job.

"Right when my son was being born, I was laid off," Stephens said shortly after voting. "I lost benefits and everything. It was not a good thing."

Stephens said the continuing high unemployment under Obama bolstered his vote for Romney.

Michelle Welch, a 50-year-old registered nurse who voted at the Arts Center, said she supported Romney because of the struggling economy and because the way Obama "pushed Obamacare through." But, she said, she picked Griffin's opponent, Democrat Herb Rule, for the 2nd District.

"I like the fact that's he's local," Welch said of Rule. "He's lived here and he knows us."

More than 100 people were waiting in line shortly before 9 a.m. at Henderson United Methodist Church off Base Line Road in southwest Little Rock.

Among them was Letha Reese, a 52-year-old Little Rock resident who said she voted for Obama.

"I just didn't feel that Mitt Romney gave me enough to go on," she said, mentioning a lack of specifics on his tax cut plan. "Where's it coming from? You've got to say if you want my vote."

Voters are choosing a representative in each of the state's four congressional districts.

In the 4th District, where Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Ross is not seeking re-election, Democrat Gene Jeffress and Republican Tom Cotton are vying for the post.

The Republican incumbents in the other three districts — U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford in the 1st; Griffin in the 2nd; and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack in the 3rd — are seeking re-election. Democratic challengers are Scott Ellington in the 1st District and Rule in the 2nd District.

Green and Libertarian party candidates are also on the ballot in each congressional district.

Arkansas voters will also decide on a ballot measure that would legalize the use and sale of medical marijuana for patients with certain conditions. Proponents of the measure say the drug helps patients cope with pain better than available options. Opponents contend that passage would lead to abuse of the drug.

Welch said she voted against the marijuana measure because she doesn't think it would be properly controlled.

"If they had a better way to administer it, like through a pharmacy, then I would consider it," she said. "But not until then."

Loveless and Davis both said they voted for it.

"If it's regulated and it can help people with their health issues, I don't see why not," she said.

In addition to those races, voters across the state are tasked with picking state representatives in an election that could shift the balance of power in the state Legislature for the first time in more than 135 years. Democrats have controlled it since Reconstruction.

Election Day comes on the heels of a record early-voting period in which more than 439,000 voters cast ballots.

Information on voter registration status and polling place locations are available at the Arkansas secretary of state's votenaturally.org website.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.