NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Bill Halter said his campaign is working to get voters to the appropriate voting locations in Garland County, where the number of polls was reduced to two in Tuesday's runoff election.
Speaking shortly after filling out his ballot in North Little Rock, Halter said his campaign is trying to get volunteers at the closed polling stations to direct voters to the correct ones. Campaign officials are also working to arrange carpools and vans, he said.
"This situation in Garland County is really unfortunate to reduce 40 polling sites down to two in a runoff," he said shortly after voting in North Little Rock. "It's going to result in a large number of people, we believe, having to drive 20 miles each way to vote. And that's tough to do if you're hard-working and in the middle of the day."
Lincoln spokesman Katie Laning Niebaum said the decision to reduce the polling locations will make the process more inconvenient for Garland County voters.
“This is extremely unfortunate and Senator Lincoln's campaign will be monitoring the situation closely to ensure that turnout in Garland County is not affected by this arbitrary decision,” she said.
Democratic secretary of state candidate Pat O'Brien called the Garland County situation a "mess" that could be avoided if each county had an election coordinator. O'Brien's opponent, Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox, said he was deeply concerned about the move.