Early voting opens Monday in River Valley vote centers for Nov. 8 general election

William Craig (right) and Randy Morrison, troubleshooters for the Sebastian County Election Commission, test voting machines, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, at the commission’s office in downtown Fort Smith. Visit nwaonline.com/221023Daily/ for today's photo gallery.
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
William Craig (right) and Randy Morrison, troubleshooters for the Sebastian County Election Commission, test voting machines, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, at the commission’s office in downtown Fort Smith. Visit nwaonline.com/221023Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)

FORT SMITH -- Residents in Sebastian and Crawford counties will have a variety of places and races in which they can cast their ballots in the Nov. 8 general election.

Early voting starts Monday and will continue through Nov. 7.

State law requires voters show a photo ID when voting in person, or include a copy of their photo ID when voting with an absentee ballot. People can still vote without a photo ID, but it will not be counted until an ID is brought to election officials. They will have until noon Nov. 14 to bring a photo ID to the county clerk or county board of election commissioners.

Valid photo IDs include an Arkansas driver's license or state card, a U.S. passport or military ID, an employee badge issued by an Arkansas college or university, a concealed handgun carry license, a public assistance identification card or a voter certification card.

Sebastian and Crawford counties use voting centers, which means residents can vote at any location in the county. Interested voters can check that they're registered and view a sample ballot for their election at voterview.ar-nova.org.

Sebastian County

Fort Smith residents may weigh in on three contested races for at-large positions on the city's Board of Directors. These include Robyn Dawson and Christina Catsavis in the race for Position 5, A. Drew Smith and Kevin Settle for Position 6 and Jackson Goodwin and Neal Martin for Position 7.

There are several mayoral races in the county. Doug Kinslow and John Bailey will contend for the Greenwood mayor seat, John Maness and Greg Murray for Barling mayor, Tonya Fagan and Terry Wallace for Central City mayor, Louis Kirkendall and Trini Harper for Hackett mayor, Brenton Townsend and Gary Lawrence for Huntington mayor and Hugh Hardgrave and Chris Rambo for Lavaca mayor.

The Sebastian County Quorum Court has two justice of the peace positions up for grabs between opposing political parties: Republican James Higginbotham and Democrat Dickie Robertson for the District 10 seat and Libertarian Zach Mulson and Democrat Jerry Ward for the District 11 seat.

There will also be multiple partisan races for positions in the state Senate and House of Representatives.

State Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a Republican, will go up against Gabriel Andreuccetti, a Libertarian, for the District 26 Senate seat. Democrat Becky Ward and State Rep. Justin Boyd, a Republican, will vie for the District 27 Senate seat.

In the House, Republican Max Avery will face off with Democrat Jay Richardson for the District 49 seat; Libertarian Stephen Edwards, Republican Zack Gramlich and Democrat Diane Osborne are running for the District 50 seat; Republican Marcus Richmond and independent John Catlett are going for the District 52 seat.

Registered voters in Sebastian County will be able to vote early at six locations: Room G8 at the Sebastian County Courthouse at 35 S. Sixth St. in Fort Smith, the Sebastian County Fairgrounds at 530 E. Knoxville St. in Greenwood, Martin Luther King Park at 1901 N. Greenwood Ave. in Fort Smith, Rye Hill Baptist Church at 11501 U.S. 71 in Fort Smith, the Creekmore Community Center at 3301 S. "M" St. in Fort Smith and the Ben Geren Park Tornado Shelter at 7200 Zero St. in Fort Smith.

Starting Monday, these sites will be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday until Nov. 5. They will also be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 7.

Sebastian County will have 32 vote centers open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, Election Day.

Crawford County

Municipal elections of note in Crawford County include the Alma mayoral race between Gary Perry, Edward Wakefield, Jimmy Fincher, Brent Gardner and Jerry Martin; the Cedarville mayoral race between Brian Conger and Deborah Pinkerton; the Chester mayoral race between Lacy Hendrix and Shannon Smith; and the Dyer mayoral election between Paul Brown and Robert Porter.

Crawford County also has two school board races: the Alma School Board Position 7 At Large race between Dallas Smith and Melissa Koller and the Cedarville School Board elections between Brenda Breshears and Katrina Rogers in Zone 3, Jeff Clayborn and Nathan Butler in Zone 4 and Ethan Townsend and Darrell Fletcher in Zone 5.

Crawford County has two early voting locations: the Crawford County Emergency Operations Center at 1820 Chestnut St. in Van Buren and the Alma Community Center at 114 Collum Lane. They will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, from Monday until Nov. 7.

All 14 of the county's Election Day polling locations will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8.

SEE A FULL LIST OF VOTING LOCATIONS IN THE RIVER VALLEY AT: nwaonline.com/1023rvvote/

  photo  Richard Bracken, a troubleshooter for the Sebastian County Election Commission, tests voting machines, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, at the commission's office in downtown Fort Smith. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
 
 
  photo  William Craig (left) and Randy Morrison, troubleshooters for the Sebastian County Election Commission, test voting machines, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, at the commission's office in downtown Fort Smith. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
 
 

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Registered Voters 

Sebastian County has 71,008 registered voters. Crawford County has 35,808.

Sources: Sebastian County Clerk’s Office, Crawford County Clerk’s Office

 


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