Arkansas expects Election Day surge; turnout likely to top 2008, 2012, officials say

*CORRECTION: The number of registered voters in Arkansas for the 2012 general election was 1,618,320. The wrong number was given in a graphic published with this story.

Officials working for Secretary of State Mark Martin expect turnout for the Nov. 8 general election to be higher than in the past two presidential election years of 2008 and 2012, a spokesman said.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Information about Arkansas voters

Early voting starts Monday.

Election officials "would estimate potentially 70% turnout" of Arkansas' registered voters, Martin spokesman Chris Powell said Friday in a written statement. The office said the state has 1,754,243 registered voters.

That turnout estimate is based on the percentages in the past two presidential elections: 64.52 percent of registered voters in 2008 and 66.65 percent in 2012, Powell said.

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"We expect turnout to be higher this year, as we had a record turnout during the primary. The 70% figure is merely an estimate," he said.

If that estimate holds true, that would be the highest turnout in a presidential election year since 72.13 percent of registered voters cast ballots in 1992, when Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was elected to his first term as president.

Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton, is this year's Democratic presidential nominee. Hillary Clinton is a former U.S. secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York.

The Republican nominee is Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and reality-TV star. Other presidential candidates are Libertarian nominee and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein. All are vying for the seat now held by President Barack Obama, a two-term Democrat.

In addition to voting for president, Arkansans will decide who to elect to the U.S. Senate seat held by Rogers Republican John Boozman; four congressional seats; 100 state House seats; 18 Senate seats; and local positions. Some voters also will decide a handful of judicial runoffs.

Republicans hold all six of the state's U.S. House and Senate seats. Republicans hold 62 state House seats, while Democrats have 34, with an independent in one seat and three others being vacant. Republicans have 24 seats in the state Senate, while Democrats have 11.

Also on the ballot are five measures, including a proposed constitutional amendment and a proposed initiated act that would allow the use of medical marijuana recommended by doctors. Proposals on capping damages in medical lawsuits and allowing casino gambling will appear on ballots but the votes won't be counted.

Early voting will run Monday through Nov. 7, Powell said. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. On Nov. 7, the day before Election Day, early voting begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m., he said.

On Election Day, polls are open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Powell said.

Many county clerks have posted sample ballots on their websites or have given sample ballots to the secretary of state's office to post on the Voter View website.

Bryan Poe, election director at the Pulaski County Election Commission, said he expects voter turnout of 67 percent to 70 percent.

Pulaski County has nine early-voting sites, he said.

"We have worked hard to eliminate any of the problems in the primary" that resulted from unexpectedly heavy Republican turnout, Poe said. He said he's hired more staff members and has more poll books to get people through the lines more quickly at the heavier voting sites.

"I encourage everyone to get out and take advantage of early voting," particularly on Saturday, Poe said.

Kim Dennison, election coordinator for the Benton County Election Commission, said, "We are expecting at least an 80 percent turnout, if not more."

That's an average turnout to elect a president, she said.

Dennison said she hopes to see about 50 percent of Benton County voters cast their ballots early.

Meghan Hassler, election coordinator in Sebastian County, said, "We are expecting a huge turnout for this election and hope for higher early voting [from] having five early-voting sites."

Hassler said she predicts "60 percent-plus" turnout. Turnout was 63.67 percent in Sebastian County in 2012, she said.

Trump repeatedly has warned that the national election is "rigged" against him and he called on his supporters to turn out in droves to monitor polling places to guard against fraud.

But Powell, of Martin's office, said, "Regarding any concern about election 'rigging,' we take the security of our elections very seriously.

"There are safeguards built into our systems and processes to preserve the integrity of our elections. We are confident that Arkansans can securely cast their vote and that it will be counted fairly and accurately," he said. Martin is a Republican.

State Democratic Party spokesman H.L. Moody said he doesn't share Trump's concerns about a rigged election.

"Arkansas' elections have bipartisan oversight at the county level. I have faith in our election system," Moody said in a written statement.

"Donald Trump's paranoid delusions aside, Republican Secretary of State Mark Martin purged voter rolls using bad data. He worked harder to cover up his mistake than to fix it. That's a real threat to the integrity of Arkansas elections, and one of many reasons we are focused on our voter protection program," Moody said in a written statement.

"In addition to training poll watchers, we are training a team of volunteer attorneys to provide voter assistance during early voting and on election day. We want to (1) get voters to the polls and (2) make sure every vote is counted," Moody said in his written statement.

Powell said, "As stated multiple times previously, the secretary of state's office does not have the capability to purge the voter rolls." Using data from another state agency, Martin's office flagged felons in the statewide voter database and the county clerks' office had to determine which voters had to be purged from rolls.

Asked about concerns on vote-rigging in Arkansas, state Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb said, "We feel like Arkansas elections will go as they normally have. They will be run very fair and very honestly.

"We'll do our due diligence and I know that the Democrats will do their due diligence. Our county clerks will do a good job and our poll workers will do a good job and the vote will be counted right and we'll have a good result when it is all said and done," Webb said.

The state Board of Election Commissioners decided to send one election monitor to Jefferson County to observe on the first day of early voting, the last day of early voting and on Election Day. The monitor will report his findings to the board, said Keith Rutledge, the board's director.

The board received requests for an election monitor in Jefferson County from state House candidate Dorothy Hall, a Democrat from the Cross Roads community south of Sheridan, and Faye Wilson of Humphrey, according to board records obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

Hall wrote that her request stemmed in part from election irregularities from 2012 to this year's primary. Wilson wrote that she sought an election monitor in Jefferson County because there is a recall election on Humphrey Mayor Rodney Henderson.

Stu Soffer of White Hall, who serves on the state Board of Election Commissioners, said he recused from voting on the requests from Hall and Wilson.

"One of the commissioners thought we owed Ms. Hall the assurance of a fair election. They did not feel the same for Ms. Wilson's request for Humphrey," said Soffer.

He said the Jefferson County board has been under new Republican control since January 2015, "and the current majority is striving to fix what has been broke for years and ensure all voting laws are complied with." He said he welcomes any election monitor in Jefferson County.

"As far as the Humphrey request, although the [state board] did not approve a monitor, the Jefferson County Election Commission plans to send an 'outsider' election official to that poll as our eyes and ears. We are partnering with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in an election poll worker training program for college students and will see if one of the several we are using is suited for the task," Soffer said.

Hall is challenging Rep. Mike Holcomb, a Republican from the Sulphur Springs community west of Pine Bluff. The race is a rematch. In the 2012 Democratic primary runoff, Holcomb narrowly defeated Hall and then won the House seat. He switched parties last year.

Moody said the state Democratic Party "has devoted significant resources to increasing voter turnout.

"We have about 40 paid staff working with hundreds of volunteers in communities all over Arkansas to help elect Democrats at the county, legislative and federal levels," he said.

Webb said the state Republican Party has seven regional offices to help identify "potential swing voters to get them back out to vote" and run radio ads in Little Rock to encourage people to vote.

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