Category Archives: Elections

Term limits with no lifetime ban on ballot

Elections, Politics, State government

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

For the fourth time, Arkansans will vote on legislative term limits. The big difference with Issue 2 this November is that it would remove the current lifetime ban.

The proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution would limit state legislators to 12 consecutive years served in any combination in the House and/or Senate. After sitting out four years, they could run for office again – but this time, not as incumbents.

State lawmakers currently are limited to 16 years served in any combination of the House and Senate – for life. Some senators have a two-year term at the end of the decade that doesn’t count as part of the 16. That would not be the case with this amendment. Continue reading Term limits with no lifetime ban on ballot →

Cotton’s absence gave Harrington center stage

Elections, Politics, U.S. Congress

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Ricky Harrington had a good week.

The Libertarian challenger to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton released a poll Oct. 10 showing he trailed Cotton only 49% to 38%, with 13% undecided. Again, that’s Harrington’s poll, and we’ll need to see other polls from independent sources, but it did get him some attention.

Cotton is a polarizing figure. His approval-disapproval rating was 44%-47% in a June poll by Talk Business & Politics and Hendrix College. Independents disapproved, 39-51.

Also, Harrington is the only challenger after the Democrat dropped out hours after the filing period ended. Libertarians haven’t really cracked the 3% threshold of statewide support in Arkansas, but Democrats generally run close to 40%. It’s likely Harrington is winning their anti-Cotton vote by default.

The poll numbers gained Harrington some attention, and he’s been raising a little money lately – around $40,000 total, his campaign said. It’s certainly nowhere near Cotton’s millions, but he could afford to run a poll.

Then on Wednesday, Harrington had the stage to himself during the debates organized by Arkansas PBS. Cotton declined to participate. It wasn’t worth his time, and he saw more harm than good in sharing the stage with his opponent.

All the state’s other Republican congressmen participated in their debates. That includes the two who are safely headed toward re-election in races contested by both Democrats and Libertarians. Continue reading Cotton’s absence gave Harrington center stage →

Be prepared for a weird Election Night

Elections

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo IDBy Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Just as important as Election Day is what almost always happens on Election Night: The loser bravely congratulates the winner and accepts the people’s will, the winner congratulates the loser on a hard-fought campaign, and the rest of us turn off the TV, go to bed and continue going about our lives.

You should prepare for the likelihood that none of that will happen this time.

Instead, we won’t know who won on Election Night, or for days or possibly weeks afterwards. We’ll have to wait as states count absentee ballots, and then the loser likely will challenge the overall results in court.

In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued an executive order allowing county clerks to start counting ballots 15 days before Election Day, rather than on that day. Some states must wait until Election Day, or even after the polls close, to count votes.

That includes Florida, where 18,000 mail-in ballots weren’t counted for one reason or another after March’s primaries. If the general election is close, Democrats and Republicans won’t let that sort of thing slide.

Remember 2000, when vote counters inspected individual ballots one by one for “hanging chads”? That’s what happens when an election is decided by 537 votes. It took 36 days and a 5-4 Supreme Court decision before Al Gore finally conceded Dec. 13. Even then, the results have been disputed. A review sponsored by USA Today and other newspapers found that if only ballots with fully removed chads had been counted, Gore would have won Florida by three votes and become president of the United States. Continue reading Be prepared for a weird Election Night →

Virus is messing with this election, too

Elections, Independents and third parties

March 31, 2020

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

We’re experiencing first and foremost a public health crisis and also very much an economic one. Secondarily, but not irrelevantly, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is also messing up this election year, as Daniel Whitfield and others know too well.

Whitfield, 33, is trying to mount an independent U.S. Senate campaign, which is never easy under any circumstance but is nearly impossible under the present one.

Independent Senate candidates have between Feb. 1 and noon May 1 to submit at least 10,000 valid registered voter signatures. Because so many of those will be disqualified, he must collect many more. His initial goal was 17,500.

Whitfield last year laid the campaign’s groundwork and amassed volunteers. Two months into his three-month signature collection effort, he says he has about 4,500 signatures in hand.

But, married to a wife with asthma, he’s self-quarantined at home and unable to attend the events that would help him collect more. Continue reading Virus is messing with this election, too →