Arkansas Representative Michael Lamoureux (R-Russellville) has introduced HB 1351, requiring cities to use Instant-Runoff Voting in their elections for city offices.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Arkansas Representative Michael Lamoureux (R-Russellville) has introduced HB 1351, requiring cities to use Instant-Runoff Voting in their elections for city offices.
Does Arkansas have party primaries in its municipal elections?
Or do some municipalities have nonpartisan elections, while others have party primaries?
When I looked up HB 1351 on Arkansas’ legislative website, I found that Representative Lamoureux actually introduced two alternative bills on the subject of municipal elections. Both bills remove references to municipal elections from a section of state law providing for two-round runoffs for both municipal and county elections. HB 1351 adds a section providing for IRV in municipal elections instead, and HB 1352 adds a section providing for plurality winners in municipal elections instead. It appears that HB 1351
From looking at the law, it appears that municipal elections in Arkansas are partisan (or at least, can be partisan), though a quick internet search for election results makes it appear that all or almost all municipal elections there are non-partisan (but county elections are partisan?). Whatever the case, these bills only apply to the general elections for municipal offices and not to any partisan primaries to nominate candidates for these offices.