FORT SMITH -- Early voting begins today for the Aug. 14 municipal election for Fort Smith mayor and the Position 5 at-large seat on the city's Board of Directors.
Voters in portions of Fort Smith and the Greenwood District of Sebastian County also will be able to vote in the special general election for the state Senate District 8 position vacated by Jake Files, who resigned in February after pleading guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and bank fraud.
Republican Frank Glidewell and Libertarian William Whitfield Hyman are the choices for the Senate seat, which expires Dec. 31.
The mayor's race has three candidates, District 78 state Rep. George McGill, former Southside High School Principal Russell Wayne Haver and University of Arkansas at Fort Smith student Luis Andrade. The winner will succeed Sandy Sanders, who chose not to seek re-election.
Three candidates are running for the city director at-large position that is being vacated by Tracy Pennartz. They are amusement companies sales representative Libby Piatt, McDonald's department manager Samuel Price, and Spradling Elementary School principal and small business owner Robyn Dawson.
In the mayor and city director races, if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes cast, the two candidates with the most votes will appear on a runoff ballot in the Nov. 6 general election.
Two vote centers -- at the Sebastian County Courthouse, Room G8, 35 S. Sixth St., and at Greenwood City Hall, Council Room, 30 Bell Road -- will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for early voting today through Friday and Monday.
People wanting to vote in the Fort Smith municipal election can cast their ballots at Greenwood City Hall or the courthouse in Fort Smith. Sebastian County has digital voter rolls that give a person the ability to vote in any race in the county at any vote center in the county.
Files, 46, was sentenced June 18 in federal court in Fort Smith to 18 months in prison on each charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. He also was ordered to pay $89,903.77 in restitution, according to federal court records. The wire fraud and money laundering charges grew out of his taking nearly $26,000 in state General Improvement Fund money for his own use.
He began serving his sentence last week at a minimum-security facility in El Reno, Okla.
Files, a Republican, served in the state House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003 and in the Senate from 2011 until his resignation in February.
NW News on 08/07/2018