MIDTERMS 2018
County turnout skews early
Early voting had accounted for almost 70 percent of the county’s turnout with fewer than 90 minutes to go before polls closed in Tuesday’s midterm election, the Garland County Election Commission said.
The 20,910 ballots cast during 13 days of early voting marked a 38.3-percent increase from the 15,110 early ballots in the 2014 midterm election. With fewer than 90 minutes to go before the polls closed, 30,250 names had been entered into the county’s electronic poll books.
Total turnout in Garland County was 31,085 during the previous midterm election, ac-
counting for 48.3 percent of the county’s registered voters.
This year’s midterm marked the county’s third-consecutive election where early voting outpaced election day voting. The early vote was 52.9 percent of the 12,536 vote total during the May 22 preferential primaries, annual school election and nonpartisan general election.
The 27,294 early votes were 66.2 percent of turnout in the 2016 general election. Election day voting last exceeded early voting in the March 2016 primaries, outpacing early voting by 20 percent. The election commission has said early voting needs to account for 60 percent of turnout to avoid long wait times for voters on election day.
Piney Grove Methodist Church on Airport Road was the busiest of the 26 election day vote centers through Tuesday afternoon, with 581 names entered into the location’s electronic poll books.
Voter traffic at the election commission building on Ouachita Avenue had slowed to a trickle as the final hour of voting approached. From 3:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., almost 3,000 voters had checked in at county vote centers.
Tuesday was the county’s second general election using vote centers that allow ballots to be cast at any of 26 election day polling places. Voters were assigned to specific polling locations during previous elections.
The county’s election monitoring software showed voters 65 and older were almost half of the turnout through Tuesday afternoon. Voters
34 and younger made up 7.5 percent. The 65-to74 age range was the most active, accounting for 28.8 percent of the vote. The 55-to-64 age range was second with 21.8 percent of the vote.
Election workers were busy Tuesday counting the 628 absentee and overseas ballots the county had received as of that afternoon. The state election code allows counties to receive absentee ballots until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The deadline for military and overseas ballots is Nov. 16.
The election commission said some absentee ballots sent through the mail cannot be read by the county’s vote tabulating scanners, requiring election workers to transcribe the selections onto new ballots and spoil the old ones.