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Super Tuesday deadline Monday for presidential primary voting |
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Monday, 07 January 2008 |
 Robert Brikha, left, and his father, Michael Brikha, both of Bryant, complete the process to become registered voters. Helping them is Mary Anne Siebert, a deputy clerk in the Saline County clerk’s office.
The state is one of 20, including New York and California, that will participate in Super Tuesday, the term given to simultaneous presidential preferential primary elections.
But in order to vote that day, you don’t have long to register if you aren’t already; persons must be registered by Monday, Saline County Clerk Freddy Burton said.
“We’re expecting a big turnout,” Burton said of Super Tuesday. “All of the regular polling sites will be open on that day.”
“A lot of people don’t realize we’re even having this election,” he said. “When we notified our poll workers, a lot of them were surprised.”
“We’ll still have the other primaries in May, but people in Arkansas will be voting for president in the February election,” Burton said. “We ought to know who the presidential nominees are by that time since so many states are doing this.”
Early voting will be held for one week before the election, he noted. Persons desiring to cast their ballots early may do so beginning Jan. 29 through the close of the working day Feb. 4.
“There will be a lot of activity with this many states taking part,” Burton said. “Of course the New Hampshire caucus is next week and there’s a possibility the candidates may fly to the various states during the campaign period leading up to Super Tuesday. They’re expecting candidates to be flying all over the country.”
The last time a presidential primary election was held separately from the regular primaries was in 1988, Burton said.
“The regular primary will still be in May, and in the past the presidential candidates were included on that ballot. Since it’s already pretty much decided by that time, the Legislature decided about two sessions ago to move the presidential part up to February.
The name Super Tuesday is derived from the fact that many states are simultaneously holding their primary elections, and it is the single day when the most nominating delegates can be won, Burton said.
“Because of this, candidates must do well on this day if they hope to secure their party’s nomination,” he noted.
The term Super Tuesday reportedly originated in 1984 when a large number of states held presidential primaries. In fact, the 1984 primary season had three Super Tuesdays, ending with Super Tuesday III, when Walter Mondale finally secured the Democratic nomination.
Southern Democrats reportedly came up with the idea of a regional primary in an effort to nominate a moderate candidate who would more closely represent their interests. Their plan ultimately did not succeed as Jesse Jackson and Al Gore split the Southern primaries, and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis was subsequently nominated. Since then, the particular states holding primaries on Super Tuesday have varied from year to year.
Subsequent Super Tuesdays have taken place on March 10, 1992; March 12, 1996; March 7, 2000; and March 2, 2004. In 2000, 16 states held primaries on Super Tuesday, the largest presidential primary election day in U.S. history.
Convincing wins in Super Tuesday primaries have usually propelled candidates to their party’s nomination. While the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary receive much press attention because they are first, they are sometimes criticized for being small states that are not representative of the United States as a whole. Since Super Tuesday primaries are held in a large number of states from geographically and socially diverse regions of the country, Super Tuesday typically represents a presidential candidate’s first test of national electability.
In 1992, after losing earlier primaries, Democrat Bill Clinton emerged as a candidate “back from the dead” when he convincingly won a number of Southern primaries on Super Tuesday. Clinton ultimately went on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency. In 1996, Republican Bob Dole’s Super Tuesday sweep sealed his bid for the Republican nomination.
In 2000, Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush cemented their nomination bids with Super Tuesday victories, and both went on to win their parties’ nominations. In 2000, approximately 61 percent of Democratic delegates and 58 percent of Republican delegates who needed to secure nomination reportedly were up for grabs on Super Tuesday.
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Razorbacks
