UNION COUNTY — So many voters have turned out to cast early ballots in Union County that two of the county’s five early voting machines were completely filled by Friday afternoon and had to be shut down.
A third machine had space for about 80 more votes on it, and Union County Clerk Shannon Phillips anticipated that it would be full and turned off before her office closed for the day.
Each machine can hold 1,200 ballots before shutting down, Phillips said.
Extra voting cartridges were being sent overnight, and the machines should be back online just after noon today, officials said.
“We have plenty of paper ballots, and we are using them right now,” Phillips said.
As of Friday afternoon, close to 4,000 Union County residents had cast early ballots.
Phillips said a line of about 45 voters stretched outside her office at the Union County Courthouse. After seeing the line, nine residents reported that they were not going to vote early, she said.
During the peak, wait times to vote were about an hour.
El Dorado resident Kim Roberts considered herself among the lucky ones. While standing in line, she said by telephone that she had been waiting about 20 minutes and expected to vote in about 15 more.
“They told me I got here just at the right time during a little lull,” said Roberts, who said she’s a regular voter.
A hotly contested mayoral race in El Dorado has prompted scores to vote early, Phillips said. The maxed-out voting machines included that race.
Democrat Luther Lewis,Republican Frank Hash and Independent Benito Glosson are seeking the city’s highest office.
Standing outside the Union County Courthouse on Friday on a mobile phone, Glosson said his anger level grew with each extra minute that voters had to wait because of the voting-machine glitch.
“I honestly feel like there is trickery in the game,” said Glosson. “I am the first African-American to run for mayor, and I’m the only Independent candidate. I know a bunch are voting for me. This town wants change.”
Glosson, who regularly perfor“Get out and vote, no matter what,” he said. “I am going to make sure they don’t try to keep me from winning. I know what my numbers are. I am very well-known here.”
Glosson chided county election commissioners for not being better prepared to handlethe onslaught of early voters.
Phillips said backup cartridges are normally ordered only during presidential election years and that the number of early voters caught everyone there by surprise.
“In a presidential election year, we would expect this to happen,” she said. “Not during midterms. We didn’t think ordering backup cartridges would be necessary for a midterm election. We’ve never seen this many voting early for midterm elections.”
Craig Griffin, chairman of the Union County Election Commission, said that although wait times for early voters may be high, “the main thing is that I am excited that we have so many people who want to vote. They might be inconvenienced a few hours today and in the morning, but overall it will be small, and they can still cast their ballots on paper. That’s what’s important.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 20 on 10/31/2010