Crittenden County kicks off early voting amid controversy
Arkansas Supreme Court establishes three early voting locations in county
By DONALD WILBURN
donaldfwilburn@gmail.com
West Memphis and Crittenden county as a whole are seeing a strong start to early voting, just days after a dramatic legal battle over voting access. The city, which initially faced the prospect of having no early voting sites, now has two locations open, and early turnout is already seeing high numbers. According to reports, 1,582 voters cast their ballots on the _rst day, with an additional 118 absentee ballots submitted, prompting of_cials to bring in more voting machines to manage the high demand.
Mike Ford, Chairman of the Crittenden County Democratic Committee, expressed optimism over the turnout, particularly given the area’s history of low voter participation. In the 2022 election, Crittenden County had one of the lowest voter turnout rates in Arkansas, with just 33 percent of registered voters casting ballots. Out of 32,731 registered voters, only 10,899 participated in that election.
The increase in voting locations follows a ruling by theArkansas Supreme Court handed down just last Thursday. The court decided that early voting must take place at two West Memphis churches – the Seventh Street Church of Christ and the First Baptist Church. The ruling came after accusations of voter suppression when the Crittenden County Election Commission initially chose not to open any early voting sites in West Memphis, instead locating them in the nearby town of Marion, which until the 2020 election, had always hosted the only polling location in Crittenden County for decades.
Many have framed the issue
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Mike Ford of the Crittenden County Democratic Party speaks at a press conference last Thursday with Lavonda Taylor, one of the two citizens who sued the election commission, and County Clerk Paula Brown on the right.
Photo by Don Wilburn
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign … Early voting in Crittenden County and all across Arkansas got underway on Monday. Outside the arena at Marion Junior High, candidates and their supporters lined the entry (outside of the required 100-foot distance) to the polling site there as voters turned out in high numbers to cast their ballots in the 2024 election.
Photo by Ralph Hardin VOTING
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as racial, even if collaterally, including the Mayor of West Memphis, Marco McClendon who addressed his concerns in a press conference last week.
“Do I think it is a racial issue? Yes,” said McClendon. “They are trying to suppress an individual’s right to vote. We already have the problem of getting African Americans getting out to the polls. Now you want to make it more dif_cult to stop those individuals because the make up of West Memphis is majority black. Almost 70 percent, more than half the people. It reminds me of when my grandparents were alive and they told me how hard it was to vote. My grandfather even had to take a test to vote. It’s easy to say racism doesn’t exist when you’ve never been a victim of it.”
Mike Ford, a fellow Democrat, held a much more congenial opinion at the same press conference.
“I do not believe this is a racial issue,” he opined. “I believe this about about denying people early access to vote in Crittenden County. That is all voters whether white, brown, black it does not matter. This was a decision made to limit access to the polls.”
West Memphis has a population of approximately 24,000, with a demographic breakdown of 62 percent black and 33 percent white. The neighboring town of Marion, the county seat, has a population of about 14,000, where the demographic is nearly the polar opposite.
The court’s decision, issued just days before early voting was set to begin statewide, af_rmed that Crittenden County Clerk Paula Brown had the authority to establish a site at the Seventh Street Church of Christ. Additionally, First Baptist Church, which had served as a polling location in the 2022 election, was con_rmed as a site for the 2024 general election.
Associate Justice Courtney Rae Hudson wrote the majority opinion, with some justices concurring in part and dissenting in part. The ruling resolved a dispute centered on whether Brown had overstepped her authority by designating a new voting site in the city.
The legal battle over voting sites began when two West Memphis residents, Shirley P. Brown and Lavonda L. Taylor, _led a lawsuit against the Crittenden County Board of Election Commissioners. They sought to have early voting held at both the Seventh Street Church and First Baptist Church, arguing that the board’s initial decision to exclude West Memphis was unlawful. The court’s ruling ensured that both locations would serve as early voting sites for the 2024 election.
As early voting continues, the county appears poised to surpass its previous turnout levels, marking a signi_cant moment for voter engagement in the region.
