Early voting in party primaries starts Monday

Early voting begins Monday for the state’s May 20 primary and nonpartisan judicial elections.

Registered voters can cast their ballots early until 5 p.m. on May 19. The polls will be open on election day from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The primaries will be the first statewide test of new voter-identification requirements that the Legislature passed into law in 2013.

Last week, the Arkansas Supreme Court stayed a lower court’s ruling that the voter-identification requirements were unconstitutional. The stay will be in effect until justices rule on an appeal challenging the law.

Under the new law, voters will be required to show proof of identity before they can get a ballot. If the voter does not have a government-issued identification card, he can cast a provisional ballot and return by noon on the Monday after the election to the county Board of Election Commissioners or the county clerk to show the proper identification.

Additional information about voting requirements, including polling locations,is available at www.votenaturally.com.

According to information provided by the secretary of state’s office, 94,208 people voted early in the 2012 primary. In 2010, 122,620 people voted early in the primary and 63,301 cast their ballots early in 2008.

Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, said early voting is a time for the parties to gauge voter enthusiasm.

Bass said the period allows the parties to see how well their field operations are performing and get people excited about the elections.

“It’s very important in the sense that early voting allows you to find out in advance what kind of turnout you’ve got,” Bass said.

Bass said the individual campaigns will likely drive participation in the primaries, but that the parties will take over the bulk of the “get out the vote” effort in the general election. The parties will also “plant the seeds for participation in the fall” by drawing attention to the primaries, he said.

Lizzy Price, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said the party would be continuing its efforts to encourage early voting.

“Early voting is critical to our elections. When there are more opportunities to vote, more Arkansans are able to participate in the electoral process. When more Arkansans participate in the electoral process, Democrats win because we are fighting for the things Arkansans care about - improving education, protecting Medicare and Social Security, and continuing the fiscally responsible leadership that we’ve had under Governor Beebe,” Price said in a statement.

Holly Wilson, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Arkansas, said in a statement that she expects a high Republican turnout during early voting and pointed to the Senate District 21 race that led to Republican Sen. John Cooper’s election.

“We saw a preview in the SD21 special election of just how enthusiastic GOP voters are in this cycle by the numbers who turned out to vote in that primary, runoff and general election. … Our Republican candidates have the momentum behind them,” Wilson said.