Election season was in full effect last week with Arkansas holding both the primary and nonpartisan elections on March 3.

The election comes at a time where the multiple positions including the Governor’s Office, National Congress seats in both the House and Senate, State Congress seats and many local and uncontested positions in the primaries.

Conway, for starters, saw a lot of competition in regards to its school district. There would be two district zones within the school board that were up for grabs, District Zones 2 and 3.

District Zone 2 saw two candidates, Wendy Francis and Ashley Lyon. 

According to the Faulkner Country unofficial election results, it would be Lyon who secured the votes with 1,130 votes compared to Francis’ 666. 

District Zone 3 would be different, with four candidates competing for the title. This included Shannon Khudsen, Tyler Moses, Emily Railsback and Brent Luyet.

Using the same election results, to get voting numbers, Khudsen received 599 votes, Moses got 486, Railsback 160 and Luyet 281. No majority was achieved.

Under Arkansas Law, if there is no majority vote made within the election of a school board, then the vote goes to a runoff. 

Khudsen, who received roughly 39.25% of the vote, and Moses, receiving roughly 31.85%, will face each other in a runoff election for nonpartisan positions which the Arkansas Secretary of State announced will be in November, with the General election.

Conway School District also asked for a tax increase that failed with the unofficial results showing 3,811 votes against the tax versus 3,547 for it.

Statewide, the primary elections focused on nine state political positions. These included Arkansas Governor, a US Senate seat, Arkansas Secretary of State, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General; however, these elections would be different.

Unlike nonpartisan elections in Arkansas, primary elections require an individual to vote on a particular party’s ballot.

In Arkansas the two major parties are the Republicans and Democrats. 

However, not every position on the State level had been contested with the AP announcing Lieutenant Gov. Leslie Rutledge and Attorney Gen. Tim Griffin running unopposed in both the Republican Primaries and having no Democratic opponent for her current position.

Every other position on the state level would have at least an opponent in the opposing party.

The Republican party would have six positions run uncontested. These include the previously Rutledge and Griffin, rerunning for Lieutenant Gov. and Attorney Gen. respectively; Gov. Sahara Huckabee Sanders, running for reelection for Gov. and Reps. Rick Crawford, Steve Womack and Bruce Westerman all running for reelection for US House seats with Crawford running for Arkansas District 1, Womack running for District 3 and Westerman for District 4. 

As for contested positions the Republican Party would have three races with contentions within the party.

These would include the Senate seat held by Sen. Tom Cotton, the U.S. House seat for Arkansas District 2 held by Rep. French Hill and Secretary of State currently held by secretary Cole Jester who is not running for reelection 

Cotton’s Senate seat was challenged by two GOP members, Micah Ashby and Jeb Little; however, the AP announced that Cotton received 230,197 votes compared to Ashby’s 26,085 and Little’s 25,908 meaning Cotton won by a landslide.

Hill’s House seat would be challenged by GOP member Chace McDowell. However, Hill received 47,687 votes with McDowell only receiving 14,344 meaning Hill had won the vote.

The Secretary of State Position saw three candidates running for office.

This included Cathy Harrison, Kim Hammer and Bryan Norris; however, the AP had announced that Harrison had gotten 85,549 votes, Hammer 89,387 and Norris 91,498. This means that Harrison had roughly 31.11% of the vote, Hammer 33.55% and Norris 34.34%.

Due to no one receiving a majority vote, the primary vote would have to go to a runoff.

The date for this runoff will be March 31.

The Democratic Party had three uncontested positions including Secretary of State with Kelly Grape, Arkansas House seat District 3 with Robb Reyse and Arkansas House seat District 1 with Terri Green.

For Arkansas Governor, the Democratic Party had put candidates Fred Love against Supha Xayprasith-Mays.

 AP announced Xayprasith-Mays received 24,438 votes compared to Love’s 103,930 leading to Love winning by a landslide.

For Cotton’s Senate seat, Hallie Shoffner went against Ethan Dunbar. The primary race would end with  AP announcing Shoffner collecting 101,517 votes and Dunbar collecting 28,287.

Chris Jones and Zack Huffman would compete for Hill’s seat in the House with Jones receiving 46,552 votes eclipsing Huffman’s 3,725.

District 4 would have a much closer race in the Democratic Party with the AP announcing James Russell narrowly beating Steven O’Donnell with Russell gaining 13,225 votes and O’Donnell getting 11,736.

Many Arkansans and Conway citizens stressed the importance of voting.

“It’s just an important part of what we do, you know?” said resident Colton Holder, “if there was ever a time to say ‘hey, this is what I think we should do,’ it’s right now. It’s an important thing that … a lot of places don’t get to do and so every time you get a chance you should be out.”

UCA’s student organization, Bears at the Ballot also stressed the importance of civil participation while advertising a “Party at the Polls” event in order to further political participation.

“If you want to have a voice which … many people around the world do not have one, so it’s a luxury,” Public administration senior Abigail Wells said, “to take advantage of that would just be ill on our own being.”

UCA had a polling location in Donaghey Hall and tried to bring in political participation from its students and also welcomed many residents in Conway.

“Every day is a day to be able to register to vote and then whenever that opportunity comes to vote for the first time is probably one of the best feelings because you know that you just made, like even if it was a minuscule difference, you’ve made a difference in who is representing you, who has a voice, and like the policies that are passed so it’s honestly encouraging,” Wells said, “make sure you do it.”

If anyone has not registered to vote and wishes to do so, it must be done 30 days before an election with the next general election being Nov. 3 of this year.