The first batch of absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 general election will be mailed today, Garland County Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said Thursday.
Thursday was the state-mandated deadline for the election commission to deliver absentee ballots to the county clerk's office. The clerk's office said last week that it had printed address labels for mailing and return envelopes for the 3,000 absentee applications it had received and processed as of last week.
"Those first 3,000 we're going to mail (today)," Haley said.
He said next week the clerk's office and election commission plan to mail ballots for applications received and processed this week. The 13,195 absentee ballots the county had printed represented about a third of the more than 40,000 county voters who cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. The county has more than 60,000 registered voters.
Haley said the number of ballots printed accounted for about 20% of the registered voters assigned to each of the 40 ballot styles that will be used in the election.
"We get about 60% turnout for federal elections, and if a third of the people vote absentee that 20% is the right number," he said. "The quantities of what we have in house so far is pretty consistent with what I ordered."
Haley said about 1,000 of the same ballot style are in the batch that will be mailed today.
"About a third of them are that one ballot style," he said. "It's mostly in (Hot Springs Village)."
Haley said more ballots can be printed if applications exceed his one-third estimate. Voters have until Oct. 27 for their applications to be received in the mail by the clerk's office, according to the state election calendar. Applications can be delivered to the clerk's office in person until Nov. 2.
That's also the deadline for voters to return ballots in person. Election Day is the deadline for ballots to be returned by mail or designated bearer. Voters indicate on the application if their ballot will be returned by mail, in person or by designated bearer. Ballots received by mail or designated bearer after Election Day will not be counted, according to the state election code.
The clerk's office has said voters who sent absentee applications last month or earlier should call the clerk's office, 622-3610, if they don't get their ballot by early next month.
Oct. 5 is the voter registration deadline. Early voting begins Oct. 19. The latter date is also when election officials can begin processing voter statement forms voters return with their ballots. The forms are returned in the outer envelope that's separate from the ballot-only envelope. If the voter statement is accepted, the interior ballot-only envelope will be set aside for counting on Election Day. The state election code doesn't allow the counting of absentee ballots to begin until 8:30 a.m. on Election Day.
An executive order the governor issued last month decreed concerns about contracting or transmitting the coronavirus at polling locations are a valid reason to vote absentee in the November election. Without the executive action, absentee voting would be limited to registered voters unavoidably absent from the polls, those with disabilities or illnesses and residents of long-term care facilities.