Law lets districts pick date to vote

Annual school board election dates in Arkansas’ school districts will change, beginning in 2018, as the result of Act 910 signed Wednesday by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

The annual school board elections have been held for many years on the third Tuesday of September with the exception of a couple of districts that held elections for the first time last November.

With the new law, school boards can choose to hold elections at the time when a preferential primary is held or would be held in the early part of the calendar year, or in November at the time when a general election is held or would be held.

Preferential primaries and general elections are held only in even-numbered years. So the yearly school board elections would be held in conjunction with the preferential primary or the general election in the even-numbered years, with the date choice to be made by a local school board.

In odd-numbered years, school board elections would be held on the date that the primary would be held if there were a primary or, in the alternative, on the date of the general election if there were a general election.

Arkansas’ preferential primary date is traditionally in late May, but that is subject to change. In 2016, for example, the primary election was March 1 so that it would coincide with primary elections in other Southern states.

The general election is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

The new school board law was sponsored by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, and Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock.

Proponents of the act have said that holding school elections at the time of primaries or general elections will increase voter participation in the school board elections.

House Bill 1621 to change the annual school board election date was opposed by the Arkansas School Boards Association.