Low-turnout fears shadow today's voting

5/19/14
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON
Pulaski County voters line electronic machines as they early vote in the primary election Tuesday at the Pulaski County Regional Building at 501 W. Markham in Little Rock.
5/19/14 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STEPHEN B. THORNTON Pulaski County voters line electronic machines as they early vote in the primary election Tuesday at the Pulaski County Regional Building at 501 W. Markham in Little Rock.

State and county officials are hoping voter turnout will pick up today, when polls across Arkansas will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. for the state's primary election and nonpartisan judicial elections.

As of 3:30 p.m. Monday, 94,248 of the state's 1.62 million registered voters had cast early ballots in what many party and election officials have called a low key election, even by primary turnout standards. Secretary of State Mark Martin has predicted about 20 percent of registered voters will cast a ballot.

"It's been a relatively quiet election," said Justin Clay, director of the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners. "Generally speaking, the questions we've received have been routine questions, the same type of procedural questions we normally get -- no major issues."

Voters can cast a ballot in either the Democratic or Republican primaries to choose party candidates for the general election in November. Or they can skip the partisan races and only vote in the non-partisan races for judges and prosecutors.

A voter's polling locations may be verified with the local county clerk or at www. voterview.org. If no candidate in a party election receives more than 50 percent of the vote today, a runoff will be held June 10 between the top two finishers.

At close of polls Saturday, 82,229 people had cast ballots statewide since the start of early voting, down from 82,320 in 2012 and 98,044 in 2010 during the same time period. Early and absentee votes will be tallied after the polls close.

Several hotly contested Republican primaries have tipped the historical balance in those numbers, election officials said. As of close of polls Saturday, 43,493 people had cast votes in the Republican primaries, while 37,710 ballots had been cast in the Democratic primary, according to the secretary of state's office. An additional 895 people cast ballots in only the nonpartisan judicial races.

In 2010, 142,260 Republican votes were cast in the U.S. Senate primary, while 329,255 Democratic primary votes were cast. In the presidential primaries in 2012, those numbers shifted to 152,360 Republican votes compared to 162,647 Democratic votes.

Several pundits said late last week that if the party trend in early voting continues, it will be the first time more Republicans than Democrats cast ballots in an Arkansas primary election.

"Typically we see a heavier turnout in the Democratic primary, but typically there are more contested races too," said Bryan Poe, the executive director of the Pulaski County Election Commission.

In Pulaski County, a traditionally Democratic part of the state, 3,502 people had voted in the Republican primary while 3,101 people had voted in the Democratic primary as of close of polls on Friday, Poe said.

"It's been really slow at our early voting sites," he said."We are looking preliminarily at a 10 or 15 percent drop in turnout from our last primary [in 2012]. Just as an example, we typically get around 1,000 absentee ballots for the primary, but as of Friday, we only had 570."

Poe said races such as the quorum court, local state representative or mayoral races will drive voter turnout, but there aren't very many of those on the ballot in Pulaski County this year.

In Garland County, voting was slow until Monday when the three open early voting sites saw an uptick in voters, said Ginna Watson, chairman of the Garland County Election Commission.

"We had one of our sites before Monday, have a high voter turnout of 52 voters," Watson said.

She attributed the increased volume Monday to interest in the local sheriff's race.

Watson said as of close of polls Saturday less than six percent of the county's more than 62,000 registered voters had cast ballots.

"It's frankly been just terrible so far," she said.

While low turnout was common in a lot of counties, issues with the state's new voter identification laws were non-existent, according to the the secretary of state's office and the Board of Election Commissioners.

The law, which went into effect in January, requires voters to present an acceptable photo ID, such as a valid drivers license or passport, at their polling place when they vote. The previous law required poll workers to ask for ID, but did not require voters to show it.

Officials have fielded questions about what identification was necessary, but had heard no issues from county clerks or elections staff regarding the law change.

"Most of the people we are seeing have their [photo] ID ready in their hand when they come through," Watson said. "We've heard a couple complaints, like one woman who said she didn't agree with having to do it, but she understood we didn't make the law. But mostly, it's just gone pretty smoothly."

Poe said "hardcore" voters who turnout for the primary election, generally are well-informed about the rules, adding he didn't expect any problems today.

Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she has not heard of any specific complaints arising from the law that went into effect in January, requiring registered voters to bring a form of acceptable photo identification to the polls when they vote.

She said the group had launched an extensive education campaign to try to make sure voters know their rights in terms of what to do if an election worker turns them away for not having an ID, or if they have questions about whether an ID is acceptable.

Some voters are likely to encounter petition gatherers, trying to qualify two proposed ballot measures for the November election.

Stephen Copley, the chairman of the Give Arkansas A Raise Now, group, said the group hopes to have 100 volunteers collecting signatures at major polling places in Pulaski County for the group's proposed initiated act which would raise the minimum wage. He said he also hopes to have volunteers collecting signatures in Craighead, Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson and Sebastian counties today.

Copley said the group has collected about 60,000 signatures so far and hopes to turn in 80,000 to 85,000 signatures in mid-June. The group must turn in 62,507 signatures of registered voters by July 7 to the secretary of states office to qualify its proposal for the general election ballot. (Signature gatherers can get a 30-day extension in some cases.)

The group's proposed initiated act would increase the state's minimum wage from $6.25 an hour to $7.50 an hour on Jan. 1. The minimum wage would increase to $8 on Jan. 1, 2016 and then to $8.50 on Jan. 1, 2017.

The federal minimum hourly wage is $7.25. The vast majority of workers in Arkansas are covered by both the state and federal minimum wage and are paid the higher rate, according to the state Department of Labor.

Mellissa Fults of Hensley, campaign director for Arkansans for Compassionate Care, said she hopes to have at least 50 to 60 volunteers gathering signatures for the group's proposed initiated act to legalize medical marijuana.

She said she would know more this weekend about how many signatures the group has collected. "I know we are at least one third of the way [toward the 62,507 needed] and probably much further than that," Fults said.

Election Day

Polling places are open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. today. Voters must provide state or federal photo identification, such as a driver’s license, military or college ID, or passport.

Need help with the election? Call the secretary of state’s Elections Division at (800) 482-1127 or visit the office’s website, sos.arkansas.gov.

Another option is to contact your county clerk’s office. The Pulaski County clerk’s office number is (501) 340-8336 and its website is pulaskiclerk.com.

The Pulaski County Election Commission’s number is (501) 340-8383 and its website is votepulaski. net.

More election information is available at arkansasonline.com/ elections.

Metro on 05/20/2014

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