For the latest election results from Garland County tonight, click here: https://www.hotsr.com/election/countyresults/?Garland
More than half of Garland County's registered voters will have cast their ballot when polls open at 7:30 a.m. for today's general election.
The count from 12-plus days of early voting rolled past 50% early Monday afternoon, reaching 34,000 by 2 p.m. and putting turnout on pace to surpass the 44,407 ballots cast in the 2020 general election.
The early vote had surpassed the 33,520 from 2020 at around noon Monday. More than 27,000 people voted early in the November 2016 presidential election.
This year's total didn't include almost 1,100 absentee ballots election workers began processing last week. Outer envelopes with the voter's signed voter statement and copy of their photo ID began being opened Oct. 29. Election law prohibits ballot-only envelopes from being opened until 8:30 a.m. today.
Friday was the deadline to return absentee ballots in person to the county clerk's office and also the cutoff to apply in person for a mail-in ballot. Oct. 29 was the deadline for the clerk's office to receive applications by mail. Ballots received after 7:30 p.m. today won't be counted.
The almost 7,000 ballots cast at Uptown Hot Springs, formerly known as the Hot Springs Mall, made it the busiest of the seven early voting locations through the first 12 days of voting. Usually the most trafficked location, the Election Commission Building, 5,831, trailed Community Baptist Church, 6,298, for the second busiest location.
"The Mall is recognizable and has easy parking," Election Coordinator/Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said Monday. "As we do this early voting longer and longer, people are getting used to other locations."
Haley said given that more than half of the registered voters, and likely three-fourths of the expected turnout, will have voted when polls open today, the county's more than 100 electronic ballot marking devices should easily accommodate election day turnout.
He said the machines can handle almost 11,000 voters if voters take 10 minutes on average to mark their ballots. Chief judges from the 17 election day vote centers will bring digital and paper copies of their locations' results to the Election Commission Building after polls close at 7:30 p.m.
Digital results taken from the locations' ballot-scanning tabulators and loaded onto a thumb drive will be loaded onto a hardened computer that's not connected to the internet. Those results will be downloaded to a special thumb drive the state provided and transmitted to the secretary of state's office.
Haley noted the county keeps results tapes and marked ballots as backups to the digital results. The state's hand count this summer of more than 6,000 votes from the March primaries and nonpartisan general election matched the county's machine count.
"No matter what gets transmitted, it's all here," Haley said of marked ballots the county is required by law to keep for two years.
Today marks the 10th preferential primaries or general election with open voting in Garland County. Voters can choose from one of the following 17 Election Day vote centers, regardless of the precinct they have been assigned:
Election Commission Building -- 649A Ouachita Ave.
Webb Community Center -- 127 Pleasant St.
Crossgate Church -- 3100 E. Grand Ave.
Bill Edwards Center -- 517 Airport Road.
Lake Hamilton School, FFF barn -- 471 Adam Brown Road.
Creekside Community Church -- 1010 Shady Grove Road.
Garland County Library -- 1427 Malvern Ave.
Red Oak Baptist Church -- 2791 Highway 290.
Uptown Hot Springs (Mall) -- 4501 Central Ave.
Lake Hills Free Will Baptist Church -- 2344 Airport Road.
First Baptist Church of Royal -- 7402 Albert Pike Road.
Community Baptist Church -- 3518 Highway 7 north.
Mountain Pine City Hall -- 241 Main St.
Jessieville First Baptist Church -- 174 Beaudry Circle.
Fountain Lake Fire Department -- 7146 Park Ave.
Lonsdale City Hall -- 501 Cockrill St.
Roanoke Baptist Church -- 236 Whittington Ave.