Category Archives: Elections

Coming soon to a ballot near you

Elections, Legislature, Politics, State government

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo IDBy Steven Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

We’re getting a pretty good idea of some of the choices you’ll have on your ballot in 2020: definitely a sales tax extension for highways, and potentially legislative term limits and a proposal to make it harder to amend Arkansas’ Constitution.

Let’s start with the highway tax.

When the legislative session began, Gov. Asa Hutchinson made highway funding a priority. One relatively easy way to do that is to ask voters to continue paying a tax they’re already paying. In this case, it would be a half-cent sales tax voters approved in 2012 to fund the Connecting Arkansas Program for highways.

It’s due to expire in 2023. Voters can make it permanent next November through a constitutional amendment referred by the Legislature. It would provide about $205 million a year for the state’s highways and another $88 million for city and county roadways. Continue reading Coming soon to a ballot near you →

Would you rather rank your choices on the ballot?

Elections, Politics, State government

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

A lot can happen in two years, but in November 2020 Arkansans could vote on reforming the act of voting itself.

That will be the case if ranked choice voting supporters can craft a proposal, get it past the attorney general, raise money, collect signatures, and survive the usual court challenges.

Otherwise known as “instant runoffs,” ranked choice voting lets voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than simply checking the box next to one. Arkansas already uses this system for overseas ballots. Continue reading Would you rather rank your choices on the ballot? →

These three are my Arkansans of the Year

Elections, Politics

Arkansans of the YearBy Steve Brawner , © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

In American democracy, the gap between what is and what should be is often wide. But sometimes the ideal and the real converge, and when they do, it’s a beautiful thing. Such was the case in the Little Rock mayor’s race.

At a time when so many elections are a choice between the lesser of evils, Mayor-elect Frank Scott, Baker Kurrus and Warwick Sabin offered the opposite: a choice between the best of goods. Time magazine has its Person of the Year. They are my Arkansans of the Year.

Scott, Kurrus and Sabin each brought strengths to the campaign. Continue reading These three are my Arkansans of the Year →

Arkansas GOP still doesn’t hold majority of offices – yet

Elections, Legislature, Politics, State government

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas is now thoroughly Republican at the state and national levels, as evidenced by the party controlling all six congressional offices, all seven statewide offices and three-fourths of the Legislature, as well as winning the presidential election here every year since 1996.

At the county level? Not yet.

According to data crunched by the Republican Party of Arkansas, Democrats still control 839 the state’s 1,524 partisan offices at all levels, not including constables. That’s about 55 percent. Republicans control 663, or 43.5 percent. The other 22 offices are held by officials who are neither Republican nor Democrat. Continue reading Arkansas GOP still doesn’t hold majority of offices – yet →