Early voting grows, but may not draw new voters to polls
More Arkansans casting ballots in 15-day period before Election Day
Last updated Friday, November 17, 2006 7:51 PM CST in News
By Jon Gambrell
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LITTLE ROCK -- Convenience has begun to overcome custom in Arkansas' voting habits.
After the Legislature loosened rules allowing early voting in 1995, more Arkansans are taking advantage of casting their ballots during the 15 days prior to Election Day.
But early voting might not be drawing new voters, and attempts to relax election laws further may not prove popular with legislators, according to political scientist Jay Barth.
In 1996, 66,609 people cast ballots in early voting. In following years, that number slowly crept upward, with a record 300,518 people casting early votes in the 2004 presidential election.
This year, more than 188,000 ballots were cast in early voting for the Nov. 7 midterm election, according to results posted so far by 69 of the state's 75 counties. That's up from a total of 116,830 in the state's last gubernatorial and midterm election in 2002.
Overall, voters cast more than 759,000 ballots in this year's election. So far, early ballots have made up about a quarter of all votes.
"As people become more aware of the convenience that early voting offers, more people are taking advantage of it," said Natasha Naragon, a spokeswoman with the Secretary of State's Office.
In Pulaski County, the state's most populous county, more than 14,000 people cast early votes in 2002 general election. Four years later, more than 34,000 voted early.
"I think it's just easier for people," said Melinda Allen, voter registration supervisor for Pulaski County. "They can work it into their schedule. Each year it grows and grows."
Those who voted early found no lines and were able to quickly cast ballots, Allen said. On the last day of early voting, however, Pulaski County allowed early voting only at the county courthouse, and lines wrapped around the rotunda as people waited to vote.
Jay Barth, a political scientist at Hendrix College in Conway, said early voting likely isn't bringing new voters to the polls, although that was the purpose when passed by the Legislature 11 years ago. Even so, political campaigns have begun to shift attention to early voters as a whole, he said.
"It's really folks who would probably already vote," Barth said. "These are folks who are very strongly partisan."
As early voting is popular for its ease, absentee voting remains low because of its rules. Voters can cast absentee ballots if they will be "unavoidably absent" from their polling place on Election Day, or if illness or disability stops from them voting.
But other states have loosened absentee balloting rules. In 2000, Oregon conducted its first statewide mail-in ballot election. Studies afterward showed renters and college students more likely to cast ballots in a vote-by-mail system.
But in a state where poll taxes and literacy tests were once prevalent, Barth doesn't see legislators moving too quickly to loosen absentee rules.
"I think there would probably be some people that would say we need to be very concerned about possibility of fraud. It certainly becomes a possibility with mail-in ballots," Barth said. "That said, I tend to be of the opinion that if people want to commit fraud in an election, they'll find a way to do it."
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