Early Voting Grows

Laura Shepard-Johnson, a field technician for the Washington County Election Commission, works Monday with other technicians testing and preparing electronic voting machines for the early voting period for November’s general election at the commission’s facility at the county’s south campus in Fayetteville.

Laura Shepard-Johnson, a field technician for the Washington County Election Commission, works Monday with other technicians testing and preparing electronic voting machines for the early voting period for November’s general election at the commission’s facility at the county’s south campus in Fayetteville.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

— The shortest lines for voting in this year’s general election might be outside the polling places on Nov. 6.

Early voting has soared in Northwest Arkansas during the past several election cycles, with as many as four of every 10 ballots cast before the doors open at polling sites on election day. After holding steady for more than two decades around 10 percent, early voting surged beginning in 2000. By 2008, 37 percent of all Arkansas voters cast their ballots early.

The popularity of early voting has changed everything from candidates’ spending habits to the type of ballot cast, and has implications for voters, candidates and parties, according to experts.

Party Politics

Parties call supporters throughout the two weeks of early voting and keep lists of those who say they’ve already cast a ballot, said Tyler Clark, chairman of the Washington County Democratic Party.

“We don’t want to waste resources on election day calling people who’ve already voted,” Clark said. “We also encourage all our activists to vote early, so they’re available to help on election day.”

Early voting also tends to be dominated by base voters, not undecided swing voters, said Mike Sevak, chairman of the Benton County Republican Party. When the parties track loyal base voters, candidates can concentrate on campaigning to those in the middle.

“If we get a lot of people saying they’ve already voted, we know a bit about how many undecided folks remain out there,” Sevak said. “If we as a party can tell who’s voted, keep track of the get-out-the-vote efforts, that leaves the candidates free to go out and target undecided voters.”

At A Glance

Early Voting

Early voting for the Nov. 6 general election begins Oct. 22 at two rooms in the Washington County Courthouse and one polling place in Springdale. Hours at each site are 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday through Nov. 3. The locations:

• Washington County Clerk's Office, paper ballots only.

• Washington County Quorum Court Room, touchscreen voting machines only.

• Springdale Rodeo Center, touchscreen voting machines only.

On Nov. 5, hours will be 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the courthouse and the Rodeo Center will be closed.

Voters should call the Clerk's Office at 479-444-1711 or visit the website, voterview.org, for information about polling places. Sample ballots are available on the website.

On The Campaign Trail

For candidates, last-ditch efforts to persuade the electorate aren’t so last-ditch anymore.

“There are 14 election days, not just one,” said Paul Graham, a Republican from Farmington seeking a state House seat. “The election starts the 22nd.”

Both Graham and his Democratic opponent, David Whitaker of Fayetteville, said they attended more events and spent money on campaign literature and signs earlier than in past races. Graham won a contested race for Farmington City Council in 2002. Whitaker lost a Congressional bid in 2010.

“In the old days, you started your last push at the crack of dawn on Election Day,” Whitaker said. “Now it’s a two-week sprint.”

Some states have already begun early voting, either at centralized polling locations or by mail. Several western states conduct elections almost completely by mail, and early voting rates in those states have reached 85 percent, according to the U.S. Elections Project, a database of election trends maintained by researchers at George Mason University.

Arkansas’s model of one or more early voting centers mirrors the approach more popular on the East coast, said Janine Parry, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas.

“No matter how it operates, we’re seeing early voting spike in popularity everywhere,” Parry said.

For presidential candidates, that’s led to changes in scheduling and spending in some states, particularly swing or battleground states where early balloting begins as much as a month before the election, Parry said.

Tally Time

Many early voting sites offer only electronic balloting, because there are many different ballots depending on where a voter resides, said Karen Combs Pritchard, Washington County clerk.

“We do offer paper ballots in our office, but the logistics for bringing them to an offsite polling place would be a nightmare,” she said.

One advantage to electronic balloting this year is paper ballots are two pages long, Pritchard said. Electronic ballots reduce both the potential for handling errors and the time required to tally, she said.

Early votes are counted on the afternoon of election day, with only the Nov. 6 ballots counted after polls close that evening.

“Every ballot we can count early helps get the results out faster,” said John Logan Burrow, chairman of the Washington County Election Commission. “That’s especially true this year because of the two-page ballot. It just takes longer to run all those pages through the machine.”

While more voters are casting early ballots, the popularity of early voting doesn’t seem to be bringing new voters into the equation, Parry said.

“We don’t see any correlation between increased early voting and overall turnout,” Parry said. “It appears to be more of a convenience for those who were already likely to vote, than it is capturing new or additional voters.”

In the Booth

Increased early voting could also simplify election day balloting, reducing wait time and allowing more opportunities to clear up any confusion about a voter’s address or qualifications, Sevak said.

“It’s a long ballot, and will take some folks a bit of time to read,” he said. “The more early voting, the shorter the lines and wait times on Nov. 6.”

Voters who’ve changed their name, address or other information can clear up confusion easier during early voting than on election day, Pritchard said. That means fewer provisional ballots for the election commission to examine, and faster tallying of results, she said.

For some voters, voting early is a convenience. For others, it’s a necessity.

Chris Hunter worked a retail management job in Fayetteville in 2008 and knew he’d have time on election day to go to his normal polling place. This time around, his job as an equipment technician requires travel, often on short notice.

“I may not be here on election day, and I might not know it until the night before,” Hunter said. “I need to get down and vote while I can, or I could end up missing my chance.”