FAYETTEVILLE -- Voters already have too little say in their state government, and Common Ground AR will oppose upcoming efforts to restrict that say further, leaders of the group told the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas on Friday.
Group founder Sen. Jim Hendren, I-Sulphur Springs, and Executive Director Misty Orpin spoke to about 130 attendees at the club's lunch meeting at Mermaids restaurant.
Hendren's nonprofit group tried to get more voters to participate in party primaries in May, Hendren told the club. There was a bigger-than-normal turnout, particularly in Northwest Arkansas, but overall turnout was still only 19%, he said.
Yet those primaries are decisive in determining who will win the general election in November, he said. The state is made up largely of safe Republican legislative districts with a few safe Democratic ones, election results show.
"Twenty percent of the people in this state are running it," Hendren told the group. That is too narrow a base to be representative and responsive to the state's needs as a whole, he said.
"The number one motivating factor in any legislator's vote on any issue is: Is this going to get me primaried?" he said, referring to drawing an opponent and losing in party primaries, not the general election.
The majority Republican Party already put a plank in the state party's platform in July that would restrict primary voting to registered Republicans. Currently, a qualified Arkansas voter can vote in the party primary of his choice. About 70% of Arkansans aren't registered in either party, so such a closed primary would automatically eliminate most Arkansas voters from the primary process, Orpin said. Changing to closed primaries would require passing a state law.
Common Ground will oppose efforts to close primaries in the upcoming legislative session in January, Hendren and Orpin said.
The only chance for major primary reform that increases voter participation would come from a ballot initiative by voters, Hendren and Orpin said. Ballot initiatives brought by voters would be practically impossible to pass if Issue 2 passes, Hendren said.
Issue 2 would raise the threshold for approval of proposed constitutional amendments and initiated acts brought by voter petition from a simple majority to 60%. That 60% threshold would make passing anything by popular referendum nearly impossible, Hendren said.
The Legislature referred Issue 2 to the ballot.
Common Ground plans to put together a proposal for primary and election reform. Audience member Larry Long of Fayetteville asked Hendren what that proposal would be. Hendren said the group hasn't decided. Orpin said after the meeting the group plans to do polling, town halls and other forms of public input around the state before drafting any such proposal.
On the web
Common Ground website:
https://commongroundar.org/