Early voting begins today

Primaries, judicial races, school elections on ballots

In this file photo Garland County Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley sets up a voting machine at the Hot Springs Mall in preparation for the start of early voting. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record
In this file photo Garland County Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley sets up a voting machine at the Hot Springs Mall in preparation for the start of early voting. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record

Voters going to the polls today for the start of early voting in the March 3 preferential primaries, nonpartisan general election and annual school elections can view sample ballots online.

Ballots can be previewed at voter view, http://www.voterview.org, on the secretary of state's website. Voters can view the sample ballot specific to their precinct by entering their name and date of birth. They can choose from a Democratic, Republican or nonpartisan ballot. The latter lists only judicial and school board races.

Early voting locations are the Election Commission Building, 649-A Ouachita Ave., the Hot Springs Mall, 4501 Central Ave., Community Baptist Church, 3518 Highway 7 north, and LakePointe Church, 1343 Albert Pike Road. All four will be included in the 25 vote centers that will be open on election day.

Early voting hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today through Friday and Feb. 24-28. Saturday hours on Feb. 22 and 29 are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hours for March 2 are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A government-issued photo ID is required to vote. Student IDs from an accredited college or university are also acceptable.

The election marks the second time party primaries and the nonpartisan general election will be held in March. Garland County Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said he expects turnout to rival the March 2016 elections, the state's first primaries held in March.

According to information maintained by the secretary of state's office, 21,856 of the county's 62,725 registered voters participated. The almost 35% turnout was preceded by a 20.13% turnout, or 12,083 voters, for the May 2012 presidential primaries. State law now mandates primaries during presidential election years be held in March. Primaries held in gubernatorial election years are in May.

Early voting accounted for 40% of the 2016 turnout and 58% of the 2012 turnout.

Haley said the FBI sent the election commission and county clerk's office a questionnaire inquiring about the county's election procedures.

"They didn't advise us to do anything differently from what we've been doing," he said.

The county was asked if its voting machines were equipped with networking capabilities such as modems or network cards that allow them to access the internet.

The county uses its ES&S ExpressVote touch screens as ballot-marking devices only. They have no internet capability. Selections register on cards voters put in the machines to activate their ballot. The cards are then put into a scanner that tabulates results.

The results are downloaded onto flash drives poll workers bring to the Election Commission Building, where they're aggregated into an encrypted file the election commission uploads to the secretary of state's office on election night.

The election commission keeps ballot-activation cards, or paper backups, for two years. Cards from the May 2018 primaries are still at the Election Commission Building, Haley said.

The county indicated in the questionnaire that tablets poll workers use to check voters' registration and if they have already voted are double-password protected, with one password for poll workers and one that is specific to the election.

The tablets are connected to the internet to allow real-time updating of the voting rolls, letting poll workers know if a voter has already cast a ballot activation card at another vote center. The county transitioned to vote centers ahead of the March 2016 elections. Voters aren't assigned a polling location and can choose where they vote.

Local on 02/18/2020

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