As noted in a March 3 News-Times article, Union County was plagued by various issues during the primary elections earlier this year. At the time, poll workers complained of faulty equipment and insufficient training, among other problems.
Leading up to the general election, the Union County Election Commission worked to train all poll workers, judges and sheriffs. According to Election Commission Chairperson Janelle Williams, these efforts led to a much smoother election process this time.
“It went well, there were no big problems and we’ve received some compliments. Everything went much more smoothly, though there were some long lines,” Williams said.
Turnout for Union County is listed at 59.48% on the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website, 16,605 out of 27,917 registered voters. According to Williams, 8,776 of those were early votes.
Some voters did complain of wait times at Smackover’s voting center, located at the First United Methodist Church. On election day, one voter told the News-Times that she encountered a two-and-a-half hour wait at the location.
Williams said she received reports of long waits in Smackover, Parkers Chapel and Norphlet on election day.
“We just had way more people in the rural areas than we expected. We expected to be bombarded at Ward 4 and Ward 1 [in El Dorado]. By noon on Tuesday, the Fairgrounds had only processed 149 people. I know that Parkers Chapel, Norphlet and Smackover all had over 400 people total. I think more people came out in the city in the afternoon,” Williams said.
Williams said that Union County’s voting center system, which allows county voters to vote at any polling station, played a part in the unpredictable nature of the process.
“We’ll just have to look at Smackover for next time, see if we need to put more voting machines there,” Williams said.
Williams said that despite the long lines, the high turnout is something to be praised.
“I think we saw a lot of young voters and first-time voters. It’s a good thing that they are exercising their right to vote,” she said.
A not-insignificant number of votes still remain to be verified in the county.
Williams said that Union County still has 82 absentee ballots and 24 provisional ballots that can be verified before next Friday, November 13. Several local races could still be potentially be disrupted by these votes, including Calion’s W3P1 council race, which is only one vote apart, or El Dorado’s W4P2 race, which is 61 votes apart.
Williams said that the process includes verifying the identity of the people who cast the ballots. The county has until next Friday to certify its election results, meaning that some or all of those votes could still count if they are verified.
Provisional ballots are usually used if a voter did not bring an I.D. to vote, requested an absentee ballot but later decided to vote in person or went to a voting center but was not registered to vote.
These ballots are set aside on election day for the verification process.
For the absentee ballots, voters who did not include an I.D. with their ballot were sent a letter informing them of the need to provide it. These voters also need to verify their identity before the results are verified next Friday to have their votes counted.
Furthermore, as mentioned in a statement by the Union County Clerk’s office on Wednesday, ballots sent by overseas military personnel also have 10 days after election day to arrive and be counted.