Arkansas was ranked last in voter turnout rates in a study conducted by the National Conference of Citizenship. The report found that in the 2020 presidential election, 54% of Arkansans voted, whereas the national average was 66%.
In an interview with Talk Business & Politics, Jay Barth, director of the Clinton Presidential Center, said part of the reason for this low voter turnout is how civic education is taught.
“Sadly, I think we’re not doing enough in terms of civic education to really prepare folks. In Arkansas, civics is often offered in ninth grade. That’s a long time before folks become eligible to become voters. We need to close that gap,” he said.
According to the American Bar Association, 38 states and D.C. require a high school civics course. Of those 38 states and D.C, seven of them require civics to be a class that is a year long.
Barth also said the lack of voter turnout in the state is due to policy.
“Being able to show up that day and register to vote and voting that day. Even if it’s a provisional ballot, just being to you know not have these big gaps between regular deadlines and election day, because that’s often a big chunk of time. We know that the energy of campaigns really happens in the last handful of weeks,” he said.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 22 states and D.C allow voters to register to vote and cast their vote on the same day.
The report also found that Arkansans trusted the federal government at a lower rate than the national average. In Arkansas, 35% of voters said they believed the federal government did the right thing at least half the time, whereas the national average was 46%.
