With less than a week before Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, states across the U.S. are seeing record voter turnout in early and absentee voting, and ballots cast as of Oct. 27 were already approaching half of the total voter turnout in 2016.
In Arkansas, early votes as of Oct. 27 had come to 44.1% of the total votes cast in 2016, which is just behind the national average of 48.2%, according to statistics from the U.S. Elections Project. With 559,445 early votes cast in the state, the majority have been in person, though 95,049 of the 127,450 requested absentee ballots had also been returned a week before Election Day.
Jacque Martin of Heber Springs is among those who cast their ballots early. She told North Central Arkansas Today that she voted as soon as early voting began.
While many of the local elections most important to her were candidates running unopposed, Martin said that she voted in every race, but that the presidential race held particular significance for her.
“The most important issue to me in deciding who to vote for is their adherence to the U.S. Constitution,” Martin told North Central Arkansas Today.
Yet, she also looks at the impact that the issues and officeholders have on her community.
“The other one would be the economy: Who supports and promotes capitalism in the United States,” Martin said.
She also said she wants a president who has the capacity to handle whatever challenge comes.
“The third would be a president who is strong enough to put down any insurrection in the United States,” she said.
However a person feels about the election, though, Martin said that U.S. voters have an opportunity not everyone on the planet has: the right to choose their leaders.
“Throwing that away is absolutely the wrong thing to do, and when their vote could be counted and make a major difference for their country going in the right direction,” Martin told North Central Arkansas Today.
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