Good Tuesday morning to you.

⛅ Today's weather: Partly sunny, with a high of 75 and a low of 58.

🗳️ Local elections take local reporting. Become a member to help make it possible.

Today’s newsletter is 892 words — a 3.5-minute read.

About 277,000 ballots were cast in Arkansas during the first week of early voting.

Why it matters: That's about 15% of all registered voters in the state, with another week of early voting and Election Day remaining, according to the Arkansas Secretary of State's Office. The first week was Oct. 19 through Saturday.

• More than 1.84 million people are registered to vote in Arkansas.

Flashback: About 214,000 Arkansas voters cast their ballots during the first week of early voting in the midterm elections in 2022, Secretary of State's office spokesperson Samantha Boyd told Axios.

• That was about 12% of 1.8 million registered voters.

The latest: The Democratic Party of Arkansas launched a new voter protection hotline at 833-336-8683 for anyone who has questions or whose voting eligibility is questioned at the polls.

• The ACLU also lists hotlines in several languages.
• A photo ID is required to vote in Arkansas. Those who show up to vote without an ID can still cast provisional ballots, which must be certified to count.

The big picture: While early turnout can offer clues about enthusiasm, those casting ballots ahead of Election Day tend to be more politically engaged than the average American, making the data an unreliable predictor of final results, Axios' David Adkins and Herb Scribner write.

Zoom in: Northwest Arkansas is on par with the state, with just under 15% of registered voters having cast their ballot in Washington County and just over 15% in Benton County.

• In Washington County, 22,926 of 154,292 registered voters had cast their ballots through Saturday, according to Jennifer Price, executive director of the county's election commission. That's compared to 16,129 of 142,653 during the same period in 2022.
• In Benton County, 30,804 ballots were cast among the 204,425 registered voters, county election coordinator Kimberly Dennison told Axios. In 2022, 22,026 of the 181,382 registered voters cast ballots during the first week of early voting.

Go deeper: See our voter guide and your ballot ahead of time. Also, see your polling places and when they're open.

Share

Some of your local city councils meet tonight. Here are a few highlights of what's on deck.

Bentonville will vote on:

🐶 Accepting an anonymous donation of about $1.2 million, $400,000 of which will go to the library and the remaining $723,000 to the animal shelter.

🚲 An agreement worth about $2.7 million with J&L Concrete and Excavation for the construction of the Elm Tree sidepath trail.

• Work on Elm Tree Road is needed to connect neighborhoods to Elm Tree Elementary School. It's a critical connection to the Eighth Street bike lane, providing active transportation access to Gateway Park and Coler Preserve, according to city documents.

💧 An agreement worth about $1.7 million with Steep Creek for the Northwest Tiger Boulevard and Northwest G Street stormwater improvements project.

Rogers will vote on:

🏘️ Accepting a $5 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation for the city to design and construct infrastructure like streets, water and sewer to support workforce housing developments.

Springdale will vote on:

⚖️ Settling a lawsuit against a police officer for $50,000, $45,000 of which the Arkansas Municipal League would pay. The city would pay the remaining $5,000.

• Springdale resident Tony Santiago Martinez sued Springdale K-9 police officer Jordan Jacobs, arguing that Jacobs in 2022 allowed his police dog to bite Martinez even though he was unarmed, not resisting arrest and not attempting to flee, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Martinez says he's had surgeries to regain limited use of his left arm.

🏦 Establishing a separate bank account exclusively for employee payroll and related payroll obligations to improve oversight and reduce risk of unauthorized or erroneous transactions.

📍 If you go: 6pm at Bentonville and Springdale city halls and 6:30pm at Rogers City Hall.

Share

👮‍♂️ The Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training will consider decertifying former Centerton police officer Edgar Martinez, which would prevent him from working as a law enforcement officer in the state. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

• Centerton fired Martinez in 2024 after a woman reported he entered her home without a warrant.

🏗️ Construction on the new Woodland Junior High School in Fayetteville reached a milestone Friday as crews completed the building's primary structure. The district plans to open the school in 2027. (Fayetteville Flyer)

The Washington County Sheriff's Office is investigating after one person died in a house fire near Lincoln on Sunday. (40/29)

Northwest Arkansas homeowners sold 0.3% more homes in September than they did a year ago, new Redfin data show.

Why it matters: NWA saw the rise as sales declined 4.3% nationally.

By the numbers: Closed home sales totaled 898 in September — 42 more than in August and three more than a year earlier.

What's next: Buyers may be gaining leverage: Pending sales fell 9.8% from a year earlier, while the supply of homes for sale increased to 4.9 months — about three weeks more than a year ago.

Thanks to Chloe Gonzales for editing this newsletter.

📺 Alex is watching the new season of "Nobody Wants This."

🏝️ Worth is on sabbatical. Maybe he's catching up on TV.