Thirteen days of early voting for the Nov. 5 general election and nonpartisan runoff starts today at 8 a.m.
Garland County voters can choose from seven early voting locations, including the newly-added Bill Edwards Center, 517 Airport Road and Future Farmers of America barn at Lake Hamilton School, 471 Adam Brown Road.
The Election Commission Building, 649A Ouachita Ave.; Uptown Hot Springs, formerly Hot Springs Mall, 4501 Central Ave.; the Garland County Library, 1427 Malvern Ave.; and Fountain Lake Fire Department, 7146 Park Ave., will also be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the two Saturdays leading up to election day. Monday, Nov. 4, will be the last day of early voting. Polls open at 8 a.m. and close at the state-mandated hour of 5 p.m.
The Bill Edwards Center and Lake Hamilton FFA barn will also be one of 17 vote centers open on election day. Crossgate Church, 3100 E. Grand Ave., will also be open for the first time in a general election. It debuted as a vote center during the March primaries, replacing Bates Community Church.
Garland County has open voting, allowing Election Day ballots to be cast at any of its 17 vote centers.
Absentee ballots can be requested at the Garland County clerk's office, 501 Ouachita Ave., Room 103. State law allows election workers to begin processing the outer envelopes on Oct. 29. They contain the voter's signed voter statement and a copy of their photo ID. Ballot-only envelopes can't be opened until the morning of election day.
According to the state election calendar, 7:30 p.m. on election day is the deadline for the clerk's office to receive ballots by mail. Overseas voters have until the Nov. 15 certification deadline.
More than 44,000 people, or more than two-thirds of the county's registered voters, turned out for the November election in 2020. The 8% increase from the 2016 cycle was largely driven by more than 5,000 mail-in ballots.
The county's expecting a fraction of that total this year, as pandemic-related measures that expanded eligibility for mail-in voting are no longer in effect.
Voters can view a sample of their individual ballot by visiting:
https://fpwt.short.gy/SBRYwI