BENTONVILLE — Benton County voters will have their choice of four polling places across the county during early voting that began Monday and ends Nov. 1

Christine Southard, administrative assistant with the Benton County Clerk’s Office, said early voting will be available in all three of the County Clerk’s offices and at Riordan Hall in Bella Vista. The clerk’s offce locations are at 215 E.

Central Ave. in Bentonville 300 W. Poplar St. in Rogers; and at 707 S. Lincoln St. in Siloam Springs. Riordan Hall is at 3 Riordan Drive in Bella Vista.

In the 2008 general election, Southard said, there were 14,044 early votes cast.

For the 2010 primary election, Southard said, the county set up five early vot ing locations and 8,052 voters cast their ballots early.

Southard said early voting is becoming more popular and she expects that to continue. She said the vote total may be less this year than it was in 2008, but that would be typical in a nonpresidential election year.

Southard said voters are more aware of the early voting period, but are sometimes unclear on the process.

“We have people who will come in and ask for an absentee ballot when they really want to vote early,” she said. “And people aren’t as aware of our extended hours and Saturday voting hours. We haven’t had that many people come in after 4:30 p.m., which is when we normally close.”

Southard said polling places are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.

to 6 p.m. and from 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m. Saturday during the two-week early voting period. The only difference in the hours the polling places will be open is the Bella Vista location will beclosed Nov. 1 so ballots can be processed in a timely manner.

She added each of the early voting sites are open to all county voters, regardless of the voting precinct they would use if they were voting on election day.

Southard said paper ballots will only be available at the clerk’s office in Bentonville. She said cost and logistics dictated that decision. With the county having 160 different paper ballots for the Nov. 2 general election, it would be too costly to print paper ballots for all of the early voting locations.

Southard said voters will be asked to identify themselves by name, age and address so their voter registration can be verified. Voters will be asked to sign an early voting request form and provide a valid photo ID issued by a government agency, a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or othervalid government document that shoes their name and address.

Bill Williams, chairman of the Benton County Election Commission, said early voting is a good way to encourage voter turnout and participation in government.

News, Pages 7 on 10/20/2010