Super Tuesday in Arkansas: Your guide to what's on the ballot and how to vote

If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about Super Tuesday — especially if you live in a state like Arkansas that participates in it.

Like the name might lead you to believe, it’s a pretty big deal. It can make or break campaigns and is an important mile marker on the road to the general elections in November. It’s also coming up very soon.

Here’s everything you need to know to take part in the democratic process as an engaged voter and constituent.

What is Super Tuesday?

Super Tuesday is widely seen as one of the most crucial points of the primary elections when the greatest number of states go to the polls in a single day. The results of Super Tuesday usually have a major impact and point towards who will secure a political party's presidential nomination.

In the 2024 cycle, it falls on Tuesday, March 5. Fifteen U.S. states and the overseas territory of American Samoa will vote in presidential primaries and other state and local races: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

In addition to being the day when the greatest number of states vote, Super Tuesday is also when the largest states by population, including California and Texas, vote.

Arkansas holds open primaries, which means that registered voters can choose to participate in either party’s primary, regardless of their own party affiliation. You can also opt out of party primaries and choose to vote only in judicial races.

What are delegates and what do they do?

Delegates function similarly to presidential electors. They’ll attend the party convention later this year where they’ll cast votes for the candidate that won their state or part of it. Larger states with higher populations have more delegates.

Arkansas has 40 Republican delegates who will be awarded to the winner of a majority of votes (if no candidate wins more than 50% of their party’s votes, the delegates are split up proportionally). It has 31 Democratic delegates who are split up proportionally among candidates who win more than 15% of the vote.

For context, California, the state with the most delegates, has 169 Republican and 494 Democratic delegates while American Samoa has nine Republican and 11 Democratic delegates. Combined, the Super Tuesday states have 874 of the 1,215 Republican delegates needed to win the party nomination. On the Democratic side, 1,383 of the 1,968 needed to win the party's nomination are also at stake that day.

How will Super Tuesday affect the presidential race?

This year’s presidential contest has been less competitive than in past cycles. Former President Donald Trump is widely expected to win the Republican Party’s nomination over his underdog challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who also served as Trump's U.N. ambassador.

Haley, however, has pledged to continue her campaign through Super Tuesday. If she doesn’t perform extremely well, it will most likely close off any possibility of her winning the nomination.

President Joe Biden, facing off against Minnesota’s U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, is likewise the overwhelming favorite to be the Democratic Party’s nomination.

Many presidential candidates who have already dropped out of the race will still appear on the ballot, so it’s important to check before heading to the polls.

What else is on the ballot?

Apart from the high-profile contests between presidential candidates, there are dozens of down-ballot primary races for the General Assembly, federal positions and non-partisan judicial seats.

Candidates from both major parties will compete to be their party’s pick for state House of Representatives, state Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Voters will also decide who will sit on the Arkansas Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and district courts.

Many of the races for legislative seats are uncontested, meaning there isn’t more than one candidate from each party competing for the nomination. It’s presumed that unchallenged candidates will face off with the opposing party’s nominee in November more or less automatically.

Judicial races are nonpartisan, so for them to be uncontested means there’s only one candidate total. A winner for these seats should be finally decided by Tuesday’s elections.

According to data from the Secretary of State’s office, there are 21 contested primaries for the state House of Representatives, two for the state Senate and one for U.S. House.

There are two contested races for state Supreme Court, two for Circuit Court, one for Court of Appeals, one for prosecuting attorney and 20 for district courts.

The Secretary of State’s website has a guide where you can see exactly what offices will be on the ballot in your district. You can search candidates by party, county and office here: SOS Candidate Search (arkansas.gov)

When can I vote?

In Arkansas, early voting began Feb. 20 and will continue through March 4, the day before Super Tuesday. Voters can arrive at their polling locations from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 pm. on Saturday. The polls will close at 5 p.m. on Monday, the last day of early voting.

On Super Tuesday itself, you can vote from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Where can I vote and how can I find out if I’m registered?

In many counties, you can also vote early at the office of the County Clerk, but others have several polling locations throughout the county. Check where the nearest one can be found at the Secretary of State’s website: Arkansas Secretary of State

The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office also has a wide variety of other resources for voters, including tools to check voter registration status and view sample ballots.

How are the elections going?

More than halfway through early voting, several counties' voter turnout is lagging slightly behind what they saw in comparable elections in the past, according to elections officials.

For instance, Jeniffer Price, director of elections for Washington County, said that since the presidential race is usually a driver of turnout in the primaries, the slow start could be attributed to the fact that the presidential primaries are widely seen as a foregone conclusion.

Officials predict that tallies will even out as voting runs its course between now and Tuesday, however.

Chris Powell, the spokesperson for Secretary of State John Thurston, said that as of Tuesday, Feb. 27, 68,605 votes had already been cast, barring two small counties that had yet to report. That’s about 4% of the 1,747,486 registered voters in Arkansas.

Based on the average voter turnout across the last three presidential-year primaries, Arkansas could see a total turnout of around 30%, or more than 500,000 voters, by the end of Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Super Tuesday in Arkansas: What you need to know, who is on the ballot