Easley, McKenzie Campaign In Benton County Runoff

BENTONVILLE -- Voters in eastern Benton County will choose their representative on the Quorum Court in the June 10 runoff election.

Incumbent Mike McKenzie and Ron Easley will be in a runoff for the District 1 seat after they led a four-candidate field in the May 20 primary. Only voters in District 1 can cast ballots in the race. Early voting begins Tuesday at each of the three locations of the Benton County Clerk. Early voting runs through June 9.

At A Glance

Early Voting Locations

Early voting for the June 10 runoff election begins Tuesday and ends June 9. There is no Saturday voting. Voters can cast their ballots from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the three offices of the Benton County Clerk.

• 215 E. Central Ave., Bentonville

• 1428 W. Walnut St., Rogers

• 707 S. Lincoln St., Suite C, Siloam Springs

Source: Benton County Clerk

Easley received 522 votes, or 36 percent, in the primary. McKenzie received 430 votes, or 30 percent. Elizabeth Bowen received 335 votes, or 23 percent, and Mary L. Gardner received 175 votes, or 12 percent.

County Clerk Tena O'Brien she's heard little from the public to indicate the runoff has generated much attention.

"Most people don't seem to realize there is a runoff," she said.

Runoff elections typically draw less interest from voters. In 2012, residents in District 15 had a runoff for justice of the peace between Barry Moehring and Will Hanna. In the primary, Moehring received 800 votes and Hanna received 699 votes. The third candidate, Tim Cook, received 591 votes. In the runoff, Moehring received 308 votes and Hanna received 99 votes. Turnout for that runoff was only 4.6 percent of the registered voters in the district.

McKenzie and Easley said they are campaigning and trying to generate as large a turnout as possible.

"The best thing you can do is encourage everybody to get out and vote," McKenzie said. "I'm not necessarily aware of who voted for whom since it's a secret ballot, so I'm not trying to focus on people who voted for me. I'm encouraging everybody to vote.'

Easley said he's still campaigning as he did before the primary election.

"I'm just getting out and letting people know who I am and what I stand for," he said. "I'm asking everyone, my friends and supporters and new people I meet, to get out and vote again."

McKenzie points to his experience on the court and his familiarity with issues facing the county when he talks to voters.

"The people I talk to, I keep stressing the same key priorities, which includes resolving the ambulance issue in the rural areas," McKenzie said. "Along with that people are interested in their roads and in the county paving as many more roads as we can now that we've got the half-cent sales tax money coming in. We also need to continue to manage our budget as conservatively as possible so we don't deplete our reserves."

Easley also is talking about ambulance service and roads, but he wants county government to look at the future.

"I would like to see what type of long-term plan is needed for Benton County," he said. "The county's approach may be the best one, but we need to look at what county services are needed by people and what's the best way to pay for those services. It's a complicated issue. It's like the ambulance issue. It really boils down to how to pay for it. We need to know what the end goal is and what we need to do to achieve that goal. We just hit 500,000 people the other day so we're growing. I think there are a lot of questions remaining to be assessed, a lot of thing we need to look at."

Also on the ballot, countywide, Leslie Rutledge will face David Sterling in a runoff for Arkansas attorney general. Voters who cast their ballots in the Republican primary or who only voted for nonpartisan races in the primary can vote in the runoff, O'Brien said. Voters who cast their ballots in the Democratic Party primary are not eligible.

NW News on 06/02/2014

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