By Steve Brawner
© 2022 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
If you want a say in who governs you at the federal, state and county levels, in most parts of Arkansas it’s more important that you vote in May than in November.
Many voters don’t vote in primaries but then vote in the November general elections. In the last midterms in 2018, only 18.76% of Arkansas’ registered voters, or 327,629 people, went to the polls. Turnout was much higher in November, with 898,793 Arkansans, about 50% of registered voters, voting.
Three million people live in this state.
Sen. Jim Hendren of Gravette, the Legislature’s only independent and the founder of Common Ground Arkansas, says voters kind of have it backwards. They should vote in both May and November, but the primaries are more important because most Arkansans live in places dominated by one party – Republicans, usually – and Arkansas as a state is dominated by Republicans. The November election is often a formality, with the minority party offering little to no opposition. Continue reading It’s more important to vote in May than in November. Here’s why.