Early Voting Exceeds Expectations
11,000 or More Expected To Cast Ballots Early
Last updated Tuesday, October 26, 2004 10:11 PM CDT in News
By Dan Craft
The Morning News
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FAYETTEVILLE -- A line longer than the average for a polling place stretched out the door, around the corner and down the stairs Tuesday, a full week before Election Day.
The scene at the Washington County Clerk's office, repeated each day for a week, shows how popular early voting has become, said Karen Combs Pritchard, the county clerk.
"I've been here 34 years, and I've never seen anything like this," Pritchard said. "If people go to the polls in the same numbers they're showing up here, it's going to be a turnout like nobody's ever seen before."
Early voting has grown over the years as an alternative to election day polling places. But the sharp increase this election is unprecedented, Pritchard said.
A total of 7,709 early votes had been cast by the close of business Tuesday, exceeding the 5,968 ballots cast in the whole early voting period before the 2000 presidential election. On Tuesday alone, the office handled 1,452 early ballots.
Absentee voting -- also handled by county clerks -- also is up, Pritchard said. While the 2000 presidential election saw 1,654 absentee ballot requests, more than 2,500 have already been mailed out for the general election this year, Pritchard said.
The heavy turnout was forecast throughout the fall, as thousands of residents flooded the office with voter registration forms, Pritchard said.
"We knew when voter registration spiked this summer and fall that it would be heavy, but we didn't expect this kind of early turnout," Pritchard said. "We registered people who were just turning 18, and we registered people as old as 98 who had never been registered before."
That surge helped bring the total number of registered voters to 88,118, the third-highest in the state behind Benton and Pulaski counties, according to numbers compiled by the Associated Press.
Since Jan. 1, Washington County has registered 14,775 voters, a 20 percent increase in the size of the voter rolls. That percentage is the highest of any county in the state and the voter list is longer than the complete rolls in 44 counties in Arkansas.
While some people vote early during most election seasons, more new faces have been showing up, including younger voters, elderly voters concerned about long waits on Election Day, and newly registered voters, Pritchard said.
Several groups sponsored shuttle buses from the University of Arkansas campus bringing students to cast early ballots and from local retirement communities, Pritchard said.
"A lot of people, particularly those who have some trouble getting around, have traditionally come here because it's easier than getting to their polling place," Pritchard said. "I'm not sure it's that much easier this year."
Even candidates were taking advantage of early voting.
"I'm voting now so I can be out campaigning on election day," said Don Marr, a Fayetteville city councilman facing a re-election challenge.
Saturday voting also has been higher than ever. The office saw 505 voters in the three hours they were open Saturday, compared to less than 300 in any Saturday before, Pritchard said.
Extra help was recruited from the county election commission, and the clerk's staff has been working overtime to process voter registrations, update voter rolls and prepare ballots, Pritchard said.
"I've got three people in the office with more than 20 years experience, but three who've never been through a presidential election before," Pritchard said. "Without some experienced staff, there's no way this could have happened."
Near the courthouse entrance, Deputy Logan Chandler watched in amazement as the line kept forming. Chandler, who works the courthouse security desk, is used to one or two people at a time coming in and asking for directions to different offices. Lately, they've just walked right to the back of the voting line, he said.
"There have been so many people it's making me dizzy," Chandler said.
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