Local election officials reported a busy day at the polls but said no serious problems hampered the voting process Tuesday.
Some Washington County polling sites had lines, but voting ran smoothly, county election coordinator Jennifer Price said Tuesday afternoon.
“Every place is really busy,” Price said.
More than 16,000 votes had been cast by 3 p.m. Tuesday, Price said. She was aware of a line at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville but said the line was moving. Lines also were reported at Springdale Rodeo Community Center.
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Price received a couple of phone calls from voters who thought one candidate’s name was on the ballot twice, she said. Price verified the ballots were correct, she said.
The Democratic primary for justice of the peace District 9 pitted County Judge Marilyn Edwards against incumbent Eva Madison. Madison’s name appeared on ballots for eight precincts. Those same ballots also listed Sue Madison as unopposed in the Democratic primary for justice of the peace District 12.
Voters were seeing the names of both Eva Madison and Sue Madison, who is Eva Madison’s mother, Price said.
Washington and Benton counties switched to vote centers this year, meaning any registered voter could vote at any polling location no matter what precinct they live in.
Washington County had 49 vote centers on Tuesday, while Benton County had 44. Benton County had 68 voting precincts in the 2012 presidential primary election.
Kim Dennison, Benton County’s election coordinator, said the new vote centers seemed to have caused little confusion on Tuesday.
“We’ve done a good job getting the word out about it,” Dennison said.
Dennison reported no major issues as of mid-afternoon Tuesday, though she acknowledged a few voting machines might have needed attention.
“Being 10 years old, the machines occasionally go on the fritz,” she said.
The Benton County Election Commission had seven field technicians assigned to various areas of the county to address any issues that popped up. Most of their work came in the morning getting things up and going at the vote centers, Dennison said.
Gray Glover, a Rogers Heritage High School senior who turned 18 in October, voted for the first time Tuesday. He and his mother, Hadley Hindmarsh, waited in line together for more than 30 minutes to vote at Central United Methodist Church in Rogers.
“It went great,” Glover said. “I figured we’d be there for a while. It wasn’t anything short of what I expected.”
Hindmarsh, a former Benton County Election Commission member, said it appeared the poll workers were doing a good job. The number of voters surprised her.
“I had not seen that kind of wait at a polling place in a very long time,” she said.