A bill that would allow for runoffs in general elections for seats in the state Senate and House of Representatives failed to pass an Arkansas legislative committee Wednesday.
Current Arkansas law only allows runoffs in legislative primary elections, while House Bill 1078 would extend that to general elections. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Wayne Long, R-Bradford, said his goal is to have better representation for constituents.
“If you don’t have a runoff in the era we’re in now with third parties getting more and more votes, you could technically end up with someone with 34% of the vote having the plurality and be elected to represent 66% of the people that don’t want that person,” Long said. “It just kind of didn’t sit well with me.”
Long argued runoffs would help in cases where a third-party candidate could siphon away votes from Republicans and Democrats. He referenced the 2022 race for House District 56 as an example of this, where Democrat Steve Magie won over Republican Trent Minner by 10 votes. The Libertarian candidate, Howard Heffington, received just over 3% of the vote.
Republican Party of Arkansas Executive Director Seth Mays spoke against the bill, saying there isn't an excess of legislative races that are neck-and-neck between candidates of three different parties.
“I think a lot of folks assume that if a Libertarian candidate was not in the race, that vote share goes to the Republican candidate; similarly, if a Green Party candidate was not in a race, those votes would go to the Democratic candidate,” Mays said. “There’s very little evidence to suggest that third-party [voters] would have voted for a major party candidate, or else that would’ve been their first selection. They typically sit elections out.”
Several lawmakers raised concerns about lower voter turnout in runoffs, as well as the potential cost of adding extra runoff elections. Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, said elections still won’t be perfect even with more runoffs.
“It’s problematic if someone wins the general election with less than 50%, right? But it’s also somewhat problematic that someone prevails in a runoff in which the turnout is maybe one-third of what it was in the general election,” Ray said.
Leslie Bellamy, director of elections at the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office, said it’s hard to quantify the financial impact of runoff elections.
“The cost of runoffs are typically higher,” Bellamy said. “Every county differs by how many polling sites they have to have open, by the amount of races they have. Runoffs typically are costly per-vote because they’re not a high turnout.”
Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, detailed the costs of a runoff election in Crittenden County. He said the board reimbursed the county $70,000 for a primary election, with the county requesting an additional $35,000 for a runoff.
Under the bill, a runoff between the two candidates receiving the most votes would be held four weeks after a general election if no candidate receives a majority of the vote. The bill would also require all polling sites in the district to be open for the runoff election, which Long said he interpreted to also apply to early voting sites.
Long sponsored a similar bill in the 2023 legislative session which ultimately didn’t pass the Senate. The bill failed on a voice vote in a meeting of the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committee Wednesday.