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Early voting begins today |
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Tuesday, 29 January 2008 |
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By Lynda Hollenbeck Courier Staff Early voting for Super Tuesday is under way in Saline County.
Seven people started the voting, ignoring the rainy weather to cast their ballots by 8:30 this morning on the first day of early voting in the presidential primary election.
Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 when 22 states, including Arkansas, will conduct presidential primary elections.
Early voting in Saline County is being held in the county voting center, which is located adjacent to the Saline County Complex across from the county courthouse on North Main Street in Downtown Benton.
County Clerk Freddy Burton said he believes more people will be voting on Super Tuesday rather than early because it appears that a lot of people aren’t aware Arkansas is participating in the early presidential primary.
“It seems like a lot of people are aware of Super Tuesday in the country, but a lot don’t seem to be aware that we’re doing it in Arkansas, too,” Burton said. “They think it’s happening everywhere else but here.
Burton said he spoke with a member of the state Board of Election Commissioners who confirmed his assessment of election awareness.
“This could change in the next few days, if the candidates are in the state,” Burton added. “The candidates drive the turnout anyway. If they come to Arkansas, that will affect the turnout next Tuesday.
“On the first day of early voting in November 2006, 517 voted early,” Burton said. “But there wasn’t a presidential election that year.”
He pointed out that the early voting period is shorter than usual this time. “There are just five days and no extended hours. That’s what the state statute says for this election, but usually we have two weeks.”
Early voting hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the voting center through Monday. No weekend voting will be taking place, he said.
The county has a total of 58,604 registered voters, according to the county clerk’s office. Burton said that “50 to 60 percent of that number would be a good turnout.
“We have to prepare for a big turnout, because you just don’t want to run out of ballots. So we always order more than we need.”
Burton said he always believes more people will take an interest in the political climate than normally occurs. “I’m involved in it so much that I think everybody ought to be involved in it.”
He noted that the election scene has changed drastically in recent years.
“The May primaries are mainly for local races because other states have their primaries earlier and the nominees are pretty well decided by then,” he said.
He recollected the period when the candidates were not determined until the parties' conventions. “But those are now mainly a showcase for the candidates where they used to be chosen there. The vice presidential candidates still may be determined at the conventions, but we pretty well know who the presidential candidates are before the conventions start.”
The Democratic Convention is scheduled Aug. 25-28 in Denver and the Republican Convention is scheduled Sep. 1-4 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Party leaders and election officials had hoped that the earlier date would give Arkansas a greater say in the parties’ nomination battles and attract more campaign dollars to Arkansas. Officials have been hopeful that ballots featuring Arkansas’ former governor and the state’s former first lady could boost turnout in next week’s presidential primary.
However, with former Arkansas first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Democratic ballot and former Gov. Mike Huckabee on the Republican side, the other candidates have largely ignored the state and left it to the contenders with state ties.
Huckabee and Clinton both plan to highlight their Arkansas roots with campaign stops in the state over the next week. Clinton plans to address a town hall meeting on the economy at North Little Rock High School on Wednesday morning, while Huckabee’s campaign said he plans a visit to his home state in the coming days.
Democratic and Republican party officials said they didn’t know of any visits planned by either Clinton or Huckabee’s rivals.
Secretary of State Charlie Daniels said it’s too soon to predict the turnout for the presidential primary election, but said it will likely exceed the 22 percent state turnout in 2004 and the 19 percent that turned out in the 2000 primary.
“I don’t think there would be as much interest unless we had the two people with Arkansas ties,” Daniels said. “The fact that both of these candidates know almost everybody in Arkansas and everybody knows them has to make interest greater here than in any other presidential election.”
Daniels said the state has seen a slight increase in the number of voters registered for the primary election this year compared to four years ago. As of last week, about 1.57 million people had registered to vote, compared to 1.54 million before the 2004 primaries.
Arkansas’ primaries are open, which means voters can cast a ballot in any party primary regardless of affiliation. Undeclared voters make up the most of the state’s registered voters.
More than 58,000 voters are registered are declared Democratic voters, while about 45,000 are registered as Republicans, according to the secretary of state’s office. Six voters have registered as members of the Green Party, which will have its first Arkansas primary as well.
Democratic Party of Arkansas chairman Bill Gwatney said he expected high turnout for his party’s primary, especially with Clinton’s appearance on the ballot. Clinton, who spent 12 years in Arkansas as the state’s first lady, has made a handful of appearances in the state during the past year and sought to highlight her ties to the state.
She’s also raised the most money in Arkansas of any of the candidates, including Huckabee, and opened a campaign office in Little Rock last year. Democratic rival Barack Obama opened a campaign office in Little Rock earlier this month.
“Wherever I go now, nobody wants to talk to me about the governor and the Legislature as much as they do about who the presidential nominee could be,” Gwatney said.
Arkansas GOP Chairman Dennis Milligan, a Saline County resident, also predicted a heavy turnout, but said excitement for his party’s primary has dampened since the Iowa caucuses. Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses, but hasn’t racked up a win in another state since then. Huckabee’s campaign is also headquartered in Little Rock.
“Our phones were ringing off the wall,” said Milligan, who has endorsed Huckabee. “At this point, it seems like a lot of the enthusiasm has waned a little bit.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story. |
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