RISON - Cleveland County had one of the best voter turnouts of any county in Arkansas during the Nov. 8 general election while the county seems to have solidified its shift toward the Republican party for local, state and federal races.
According to the final vote tally, 2,842 of the county's 4,672 register voters participated in the election, equating to a 60.83 percent voter turnout. Cleveland County had the third highest percentage of voter turnout in the state, exceeded only by 62.23 percent in Montgomery County and 61.02 percent in Pike County.
Cleveland, Montgomery, Pike and Carroll counties were the only four counties in the state that exceeded 60 percent voter turnout. The statewide average was 50.39 percent with Crittenden County reporting the lowest turnout at 33.3 percent.
When broken down by voting precinct within the county, Rison-Outside, with 168 registered voters, had the highest voter turnout at 70.24 percent while Saline, in the far northwest cor ner of the county with just 31 registered voters, had the lowest turnout at 51.61 percent.
County Clerk Jimmy Cum mings, whose office oversees elections, said it is hard to pin point exactly what prompted a better turnout here than in other counties.
Cummings noted that during his eight years in the clerk's office, Cleveland County has traditionally had better than av erage voter turnout. "We still our right to vote regardless of whether there is a big race or if there is a local race," he said.
While local races can attract more voters than usual, there was only one on the local race on the ballot this year and that was between Cummings and Jimmy Dale Adair for county judge. Cummings won the race with about 70 percent of the vote.
Cummings said one issue that I went people did not want that to pass," he said.
His idea that the mar.uana issue may have motivated more people to vote in the county could have merit consider that...
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