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JONES:Troubling scenario for next month |
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
 It will be time for Saline Countians to make some important political decisions before we know it — early voting for the May 20 primary begins May 5 — and there are some genuine concerns about this election that deserve our immediate attention.
Frankly, the scenario is troubling.
Forget whether you’re a Democrat or Republican. That doesn’t make a dime’s worth of difference in deciding whom you want to support or oppose. And, in Arkansas, you do not have to register to vote as a Democrat or Republican. You may do that but it isn’t required.
What does matter is that you cannot vote in both the Democrat and Republican primaries — you must make a choice — and there are important races in both. That means that each voter is going to have to decide which race he deems more important, or more worthy of his vote; as a consequence, races involving candidates from both parties will suffer.
Here’s why this scenario is so troubling:
In this primary election, Saline Countians will decide who will serve as county judge because the Republican victor — either County Judge Lanny Fite of Benton or opponent Ann Sanders of Bryant — will be without a Democrat opponent in the Nov. 7 general election. It’s a winner-take-all primary for these two.
At the same time, Arkansas House of Representatives candidates from both parties will be trying to advance to the general election.
If that factor alone isn’t weighty enough, consider that in the Democrat primary, the District 28 House race features a first-term legislator, Lamont Cornwell of Benton, against a well-known Benton educator, Barbara Nix.
That factor in no way diminishes the importance of the District 29 House competition, or any other primary battles, but it does help illustrate the importance of next month’s election.
With due respect to County Clerk Freddy Burton, who usually is a pretty fair prognosticator on voter turnout, I hope he’s wrong about the primary. Burton said he is expecting between 13 percent and 16 percent of the county’s 59,800 registered voters to cast ballots.
What an abysmal expectation.
Let’s say, for the sake of conversation, that the primary attracts 16 percent turnout and that the votes are divided between Democrat and Republican races. That means that the next county judge would be decided by 5,000 people in a growing county with a population in the neighborhood of 100,000.
To put that dismal number in perspective, that’s fewer people than the number of registered Hot Springs Village voters (5,550) living in Saline County.
That is troubling. That also is an insult to the local electoral process, and as good a reason as necessary for why political party affiliation among county candidates does more harm than good. If county elections were nonpartisan, as they are with municipal and Circuit Court elections, the county would not be facing this dilemma.
Simply put, it’s disappointing that the primary races won’t command the full attention of voters. It cannot happen. The only redeeming factor may be a higher voter turnout — 20 percent or a little higher may not be an unrealistic achievement — but even then, a small percentage of people will decide who will serve as county judge and which candidates will advance to the general election.
The good news in all of this is that the candidates for the two Saline County Circuit Court judgeships will receive the full attention of however many voters choose to cast ballots. These, as noted, are nonpartisan positions.
If ever voters needed to be educated in their choices and vote with conviction, this is the election.
Whit Jones is editor of the Courier. His column appears periodically.
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