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How Arkansas election winners are decided and when races head to runoffs
JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) – Thousands of Arkansans have cast early ballots ahead of Election Day, but receiving the most votes when polls close does not automatically declare a candidate the winner in every race.
Under Arkansas election rules, the requirements to win an office outright vary depending on whether the race is statewide, federal, county, or municipal.
Dr. Cameron Wimpy, chair of the Department of Government, Law, and Policy at Arkansas State University, said vote thresholds change significantly as voters move down the ballot.
“In statewide offices, it is a simple majority. And for federal offices, it’s also a simple majority. For county and municipal elections, it may not be that simple. They can go to runoffs and it’s different for each one,” Wimpy said.
General election runoffs in Arkansas basically don’t exist, and that’s not an accident
There seems to be a general assumption that, in any election with more than two candidates, if someone doesn’t receive at least 50% of the vote plus one, there will be a runoff election to decide the winner. It’s an understandable assumption to make; the very concept of representative democracy is predicated on the idea that the winner is whomever gets a bare majority of votes.
Arkansans are familiar with the concept, too, with primary races frequently going to runoffs when there are three or more candidates. The most recent cycle of primaries even featured a runoff for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State. So it makes total sense that Arkansans would assume that general elections functioned the same way.
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