LITTLE ROCK -- Voters in Arkansas are leaving the polls with something more than the personal satisfaction of having cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 general election.
Yes, they get the little "I Voted" sticker to slap on their shirts and let everyone know they've done their civic duty. But voters also get to keep the handy dandy stylus pen they voted with.
The styluses -- no, we're not using styli -- are just one of the things unique to this pandemic-era election and are offered in an effort to limit the spread of covid-19.
Bryan Poe is the director of the Pulaski County Election Commission.
"Because of covid, we are trying to minimize contact and contamination as much as possible," he said last week, which was the first week of early voting in Arkansas.
The pens and other covid-related protective items, such as clear plastic screens, masks and hand sanitizer, were paid for with funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, says Kevin Niehaus, director of public relations for Secretary of State John Thurston.
"Stylus pens were one of the things we decided to purchase," Niehaus says. "We got enough, basically, for every registered voter in the state."
Pulaski County, which reported a record turnout of 8,088 on Oct. 19, the first day of early voting, got about 170,000 styluses, Poe says.
"I think we should have enough," he says.
The point of the pens, which also feature the "I Voted" slogan and come in red or blue, is to limit which surfaces voters have to touch in the voting process.
"People use them to sign into the poll books and they also use them on the touch-screen machine without having to actually touch the screen," Poe says.
"When the voters walk into their polling site, they shouldn't have to touch a thing," Niehaus says. "We want to keep voting as safe as possible."
Not everyone wants to keep their styluses, so boxes are placed near the exits at polling places where they can be dropped off.
It's up to the counties to dispose of them, Niehaus says.
April Duff is chief deputy clerk and election coordinator for Randolph County, where on Thursday early voting was at 14.7%, "which is pretty significant for the first four days," she says.
The pens have gone over smoothly there.
"The only feedback we've gotten is: 'Oh, I get to take this home? Great,'" Duff says. "I think they look at it as a little extra voter swag besides just getting the sticker."
"People seem to like them," Poe says. "They are really nice and are much better than what I expected ... it is a unique memento, a sort of one-time deal."
Regarding that one-time reference, Niehaus says: "Hopefully this is the only election where we are dealing with something like this."