We at Blue Arkansas just got word that the Election Commission has decided to shut down all but 2 voting locations in Garland County, Arkansas. This is a county that had 42 voting locations on the night of the primary and has over 80,000 people in it. This was one of Halter's best counties in the state where he won by 5% and D.C. Morrison voters broke over 15%, giving him the possibility of getting well over 10% against Lincoln this time around.
In an election where Halter is leading by 3% in the latest poll, Garland County gave Halter 3% of his entire vote total on election day.
The Halter campaign is in emergency mode in Garland County and they need our help. Please donate so that they can run an aggressive field campaign the last couple of days to get people to the polls.
https://secure.actblue.com/...
If you live in Garland County/Hot Springs here are the two polling locations on election day:
Election Commission, 649 Ouachita Avenue (Update)
or
The Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, 4585, N. State Hwy 7, in Hot Springs Village
It would be best if you could go early vote and avoid the amazingly long lines that are going to result from this.
Update x5
To simplify the diary (complaints in the comments), here is the gist.
I am now being told that this was a decision made after the primary filing on March 8th. That does not mean that it was a decision made after the primary election. This is an important point as it shows that this was done by the Election Commission before they knew of Halter's strong support in Garland County. Therefore, this should not be seen as a sinister move on their part.
This is however, still a very big problem for the voters in Garland county, over 12,000 (Democrats alone) turned out on election day. Two polling locations simply will not be able to handle this load. There were over 40 polling locations on the primary day to handle these 12,000 people.
You can contact the Garland County Election Commission here, just remember to be polite, this is Arkansas:
http://www.garlandcounty.org/...
Chairman: Charles Tapp, phone: 501-622-3622, email: cmtapp@cablelynx.com
Also, you could contact the Arkansas Election Commission:
http://www.state.ar.us/...
(501) 682-1834 or (800) 411-6996
Update x6:
For those calling me a liar, they didn't even bother to call the number above.
I called the number and asked "How many polling locations will you have open for the runoff election?"
Answer: "We will have 2 polling locations open for the runoff election."
Update x7
For those who want to know if this is what other counties are doing as well, no.
Pulaski County, won overwhelmingly by Lincoln, will have 50 times that many voting locations for a county only 5 to 6 times as big.
Pulaski County Locations
Update x8
From commenter rwjames who lives in Garland County:
I've just spoken with a lady at the el.commission
Ms. Jessie has confirmed to me that there are two locations open on Tuesday; those same two that the diarist has reported. As a resident of Hot Springs who live about 10 blocks away from the Commission bldg, this does not affect me at all. However, for the vast majority of Garland County residents, this could be problematic for less fortunate residents who may have logistical concerns. As it stands, this location is still closer to 80 percent of the county's residents than the HSV (Hot Springs Village) location.
There are many ways that this is inequitable and plainly dubious. First is the disparity in the population that the locations serve as I have explained. Secondly, HSV is a retirement community in which its citizens are older, have more free time to vote, and are naturally more conservative than the residents of the city proper. Thirdly, this serves to negate the people of county's rural population and the outlying areas of the city who have previously voted against the incumbent in the primary.
Update x9
The story has been picked up by the Arkansas Times Blog:
On the local front: Many on the Halter side are grumbling because the Garland County Election Commission has decided to save money in the runoff by opening only TWO polling places — at its office in Hot Springs and in Hot Springs Village. Lincoln got only 40 percent of the vote in Garland County, with more than 12,000 voting. Even with early voting could be talking about several thousand voters using two polling places on Tuesday, many of them elderly.
Update x10
I see a lot of people who initially criticized me for being wrong now taking a position of "so what". I am unsure as to why I have to explain this on a site like Daily Kos, but I will do so anyway.
My estimate is about 7650 voters will attempt to vote in Garland County on Election day. This is based in part on a good comment by osterizer. He suggested a lower number, but based on the actual turnout in early voting so far, it appears that the turnout will be around 85% of the primary. The difference is that osterizer suggests turnout will be about 50% because previous runoffs have been around that mark. However, we all know this is not a normal runoff in Arkansas. There are statewide runoffs on the ballot besides the US Senate race as well, including Land Commissioner (in a strangely contentious race). Anyway the 85% turnout number is much more reliable since it is based on the number of people who have already voted in early voting.
So, with 7650 voters voting on election day in Garland County, that means that there will be approximately 3800 voters at each polling location, assuming an even split. Now osterizer suggests that there will be an even distribution of voters over the 12 hour period meaning (with a much lower number of voters suggested) that there would still be problems even with a large number of voting machines. However, as we all know, voters don't conveniently all show up at even times throughout the day and they don't all have all day to stand in line. Typically people will show up before or after work. If they can't handle that many people in only a few hours, then they should open other polling locations.
I have also read some comments that minimalize the issue, suggesting that this is no problem for the voters. However, these two polling locations are in the urban centers, as commenter rwjames stated. That means that poor and rural voters will have a very difficult time voting, requiring them to drive to the polls (if they have a car) only to wait in line for another hour depending on when they show up. It is also a burden on elderly voters. I thought Democrats would be well aware of these kinds of issues after Ohio 2004 when Ken Blackwell shut down all kinds of polling locations and reduced the number of voting machines at the polls that were open.
Update: Success!
Commenter Pompatus comes with an update from the ground, where the Election Commissioner agreed to keep an early voting location open on Saturday to help alleviate the problem.
UPDATE from Garland County -- polls open Saturday
I've been volunteering at Halter's headquarters here in Hot Springs. Bill Halter himself just showed up at the headquarters this afternoon, and along with a bunch of volunteers marched down to the Election Commission.
Bill talked to the election commissioner, who agreed to keep the main polling place (the one on Ouachita) open Saturday. There were a reporter and photographer from the local newspaper there too, so hopefully it will get publicized tomorrow.
With one more day of early voting, this should help the situation, but not solve it. The Halter campaign will still have to work to help the rural, poor, and elderly to the polls on Tuesday as 75% of voters tend to vote on election day.
Thank you to the people who called their office and requested that they change their policy!
Update x12
I now see that the people who were saying I was wrong (and have themselves been proven wrong) have now moved on to claiming that my original diary was significantly different than how it currently reads. However, everything above "Update x5" is unedited from the original version besides an updated polling location. Again, the only thing that was wrong was my Update x4 which stated that a source told me that the Election Commission made this decision after the primary election. I updated the diary accordingly as soon as I found out my source told me the wrong information. So, basically what you see is my original diary minus that one piece of information.
However, this is all meta. Please support Halter and help him GOTV!