GRAVETTE — A backlog of more than 200 voters were waiting to cast ballots last Tuesday when the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. at the Gravette Civic Center, according to Julian Hendren, sheriff at the polling site.
They were all allowed to cast ballots, the sheriff said, and because there were only four voting machines available and paper ballots had “run out,” it was almost two hours later before theballoting was completed.
More than 1,100 persons cast ballots at the Civic Center, Hendren said. This included voters from the Maysville polling site which the county Election Commission had closed.
Long Lines All Day
A line of voters extended to outside the building when the polls opened at 7:30 Tuesday morning. Throughout the day as many as 100 or more voters were waiting in line to vote at peak times.
The polling site was hampered because voting machines broke down twice during the day, Hendren said.
The precinct was supplied with only 250 paper ballots which were reserved for handicapped voters. But late in the afternoon they were put into service until the supply was exhausted.
Voting was extremely heavy in Gravette because of intense interest in a proposed annexation issue, as well as contested mayoral and alderman positions.Maysville area voters also added to the total count.
Hendren said he hoped the problems could be ironed out before the runoff election. He noted that traditionally voter turnout is light in runoff elections.
There are two contested races, the mayoral race and one alderman slot, which will be decided in the Nov. 23 balloting.
Polling sites in other locations were also extremely busy Nov. 2 because of a larger than usual voter turnout for a mid-term election.
News, Pages 7 on 11/10/2010