Lack of space slowing early voting at Riordan
Early voting kicked off Oct. 24 at Riordan Hall, but the first few days weren’t without hiccups — many voters found themselves in line for an hour and a half or more.
One voter, Sarah Yarbrough, stood near the end of the line Oct. 26. The pile of people in the hallway stood and waited, curling around a corner and out of sight.
Shortly after she joined, a
volunteer came down the hall and warned the crowd that they were probably going to be waiting for close to two hours.
Yarbrough kept waiting for the chance to cast her vote. It was likely, she said, there would be a substantial wait no matter what time she came.
“I just think it’s important to get your vote in no matter what the wait is,” Yarbrough said.
This was her first time voting, she said, and she believes it’s important to get that vote in, even if it is inconvenient.
Barbara Downs, a volunteer working at the polling station, said this is the busiest she’s ever seen a polling location, and she’s been volunteering for about 12 years.
“We did 591 Monday and 630 yesterday,” she said Oct. 26. “And we’re probably going to be over 600 again today. People are getting out to vote
this year.”
She said that the line was moving slowly because the conference room they were in is too small for any more than the half-dozen voting machines. With a larger space, she said, they would be supplied with more machines.
With 10 machines, she said, the process would be much smoother and faster.
It’s also worth noting, she said, that a disabled person who may not be able to spend that much time in line will be moved ahead.
Cathy Wilmoth, the manager at Riordan Hall, said that the particular conference room the polling is in is supplied at no charge, and offered specifically because it has locks.
“That is the only conference room that has a lock to secure their equipment,” she said.
Wilmoth, who is in her first election cycle as manager of Riordan Hall, said that she believed the commission required all equipment be locked up at the end of the day.
While Riordan Hall does have larger conference rooms, she said, none of them have locks.
Kim Dennison, election coordinator with the Benton County Election Commission, said this was not actually accurate — the machines can be password protected. This, she said, can make it impossible to tamper with the machines.
Dennison said she would gladly supply more machines if she had more space.
“We have begged for a bigger room, and we’ve always just been told no,” she said. “They’ve got other stuff going on in there and can’t allow us to have a bigger room in there.”
After becoming aware of the misunderstanding, Dennison said she contacted Wilmoth at Riordan Hall. They were able to sort the situation out, she said, and the commission will likely have more
space to work with in the next election cycle.
This year, Dennison said, they can’t move into another room because everything else is booked.
“They provide that free of charge to us,” she said, “so we’re not going to ask them to boot someone else out that’s paying in order to give us a larger room.”
Bella Vista resident Steve Evans came to vote and said that he would like to see a larger polling station with more machines.
“Not everyone is going to stand in line for over an hour,” he said. “Some people don’t have the physical ability to do it.”
But even with the lengthy wait, he said, he had a responsibility to cast his vote.
“Lot of people paid the ultimate sacrifice to give us the right to do just that,” Evans said. “I feel it’s a privilege and an honor to be able to vote.”