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Proposal to change early voting on committee's agenda Thursday, Dec 14, 2006 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A proposal that would shorten the early voting period before an election is to be discussed by a state legislative committee today. Ending the early voting period at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election - eliminating early voting on the Saturday and Monday before the election - was one of several possible changes to state election laws discussed Wednesday by the Pulaski County Election Commission. Several Little Rock-area legislators attended the meeting. "There is a very legitimate reason why it needs to be (changed)," Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, said. "I think they brought up a lot of great ideas, especially from a county that in the past had some troubles; for them to be proactive, I think that's great," said Rep. Jeff Wood, D-Sherwood. Pulaski County Election Commissioner Kent Walker, state County Clerks Association president Faron Ledbetter of Madison County and Crawford County Clerk Patti Hill are to present the proposed election law changes to a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs at the state Capitol. Act 260 of 2003 requires county clerks to open early voting from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, starting 15 days before each primary, runoff and general election. The act also allows early voting on the Monday before the election. Walker said Wednesday that allowing early voting on the Saturday and Monday before the election has made it difficult for election officials to reconcile the voter precinct rolls by Election Day. He said 14 states do not allow early voting and just one of the six surrounding states, Oklahoma, has early voting on the Saturday before the election. If the Legislature decided it didn't want to shorten the early voting period, Walker said a day or two could be added at beginning of the early voting period. The current law with voting on the Saturday and Monday before the election also makes it relatively easy for someone to vote twice, Walker said. "If you cast a vote on Saturday or Monday, we have no way of knowing that, so you could theoretically go in and vote again on Tuesday and the Pulaski County Election Commission has no way to stop that person because they're not aware," Walker said. Walker and Pulaski County election director Susan Inman said there have been cases in Pulaski County and other counties where an elderly person suffering from Alzheimer's voted Saturday and then returned on Tuesday and voted again because they forgot, and the election official at the polling precinct had no way to verify the person's claim. Also during the meeting, the commission discussed the difficulty of having a runoff election so close to the regular election and suggested that the early voting period for a runoff be limited to one week. Other ideas discussed during the meeting included better pay and training for poll workers, training for poll watchers and banning cell phone use from the polling precinct and the use of loudspeakers from the area surrounding a polling precinct. |
