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Arkansas intermediate appellate court elections, 2018
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 9
- Early voting: Oct. 22 - Nov. 5
- Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 5
- Online registration: No
- Same-day registration: No
- Voter ID: Photo ID required (preliminary injunction issued on April 26, 2018)
- Poll times: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
| 2018 election dates | |
|---|---|
| Deadline to file candidacy | |
| March 1, 2018 | |
| General election | |
| May 22, 2018 | |
| Runoff | |
| November 6, 2018 | |
The terms of two Arkansas Court of Appeals judges expired on December 31, 2018. Both were required to stand for nonpartisan election by voters in 2018 in order to remain on the bench. A full term on the court is eight years. The general election was held on May 22, 2018, and the runoff election scheduled for November 6 was not held since both seats were won outright in May.
Candidates and results
District 2, Position 1
General election
General election for Arkansas Court of Appeals District 2 Position 1
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Bart Virden (Nonpartisan) | 52.8 | 31,514 |
| Johnnie Copeland (Nonpartisan) | 47.2 | 28,155 | ||
| Total votes: 59,669 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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District 3, Position 1
General election
General election for Arkansas Court of Appeals District 3 Position 1
Candidate | ||
| ✔ |  | Robert Gladwin (Nonpartisan) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Selection
- See also: Nonpartisan election of judges
Judges on the Arkansas Court of Appeals are elected to the court in nonpartisan elections to eight-year terms.[1][2] Judicial terms begin on January 1 of the year after the election.[3]
In the event of a midterm vacancy, an interim judge is selected by the governor. This appointee will serve until the next general election taking place four or more months after the vacancy occurred.[2] However, the appointed judge is prohibited from running for the seat in the next election. Instead, she or he must step down or run for a different position.[4][5]
Qualifications
To serve on the court, a judge must:
- Be at least 30 years old.
- Be of good moral character.
- Be learned in the law.
- Be a citizen of the United States.
- Have been a resident of Arkansas for more than two years.
- Have practiced law for at least eight years.[6]
Selection of the chief judge
The chief judge of the court of appeals serves a four-year term and is appointed by the chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
State profile
| Demographic data for Arkansas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 2,977,853 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 52,035 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 78% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 15.5% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 1.4% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.6% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.1% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 6.9% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 84.8% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 21.1% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $41,371 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 22.9% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Arkansas. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
- See also: Presidential voting trends in Arkansas
Arkansas voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Pivot Counties (2016)
Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Arkansas, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.[7]
Pivot Counties (2020)
In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Arkansas had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More Arkansas coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in Arkansas
- United States congressional delegations from Arkansas
- Public policy in Arkansas
- Endorsers in Arkansas
- Arkansas fact checks
- More...
Pivot Counties
- See also: Pivot Counties by state
One of 75 Arkansas counties—1.33 percent—is a Pivot County. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.
| Counties won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012 and 2008 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County | Trump margin of victory in 2016 | Obama margin of victory in 2012 | Obama margin of victory in 2008 | ||||
| Woodruff County, Arkansas | 8.91% | 4.21% | 7.46% | ||||
In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump (R) won Arkansas with 60.6 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton (D) received 33.7 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Arkansas voted Democratic 66.67 percent of the time and Republican 30 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Arkansas voted Republican all five times.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Arkansas judicial election' OR 'Arkansas court election' OR 'Arkansas election 2018'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Arkansas Judiciary, "Arkansas Court Structure," accessed May 8, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Arkansas," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Arkansas.gov, "Elected Officials," accessed May 20, 2014
- ↑ Our Voices Arkansas, "Arkansas judiciary 101: Circuit court judges," accessed April 30, 2014
- ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "Constitution Of The State Of Arkansas Of 1874: Amend. 29, §1," accessed May 8, 2015
- ↑ The Arkansas Judiciary, "Court of Appeals," accessed May 8, 2015
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas
State courts:
Arkansas Supreme Court • Arkansas Court of Appeals • Arkansas Circuit Courts • Arkansas District Courts • Arkansas City Courts
State resources:
Courts in Arkansas • Arkansas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Arkansas
