Election night sees replacement of 2 city council seats

Two incumbents were ousted from their El Dorado City Council seats during Super Tuesday, according to unofficial results for the 2024 Preferential Primary and Nonpartisan Judicial General Election.

On the Republican ticket, Jill Weinischke edged out Council Member Frank Hash for the Ward 1, Position 2 seat with a vote of 154 to 128, per unofficial results that were provided by the Union County Election Commission.

Former City Council Member Andre Rucks regained the Ward 3, Position 2 slot in a Democratic challenge against Roy Bullock Jr.

The tally was 105 to 76 in favor of Rucks.

Bullock has served on the city council since last summer, having been appointed to fill an unexpired term that was left by the late George Calloway Jr.

Calloway had resigned from the city council several weeks earlier due to health issues.

Bullock was sworn in on Aug. 10, 2023, the day after Calloway passed away.

Rucks served in the Ward 3, Position 2 council seat from 2019 until 2022 when he was defeated by Calloway in the 2022 Democratic primary for a two-year term that began on Jan. 1, 2023.

Hash, who served two successive terms as mayor from 2011 until 2018, returned to City Hall as a member of the city council following a win in the 2022 General Election.

Weinischke, community impact manager for the SHARE Foundation, said she is looking forward to working with co-Ward 1 Council Member David Hurst (R) to meet with their constituents “to know what they want done and what they want to see” in Ward 1.

Hurst is running unopposed for his Ward 1, Position 1 council seat.

“I knocked on a lot doors to see how, collectively, we can come together and make a difference,” said Weinischke, kept a close eye on election results and updates Tuesday night in the Union County Courthouse atrium, where a handful of people gathered to track the information on a large display screen.

Rucks said he decided to throw his hat back in the ring for the Ward 3, Position 2 seat to help ensure that the city’s east side receives its fair share of tax dollars and city services.

Ward 3 covers the southeast quadrant of town, lying south of Main Street and east of South Washington Avenue.

Rucks also said he wants to use his background and college degree in business and his skillset to push for youth activities in Ward 3.

He noted the closure and razing of the Mattocks Park swimming

pool, which was the city’s only public swimming pool and had served the community for nearly 70 years before it was decommissioned in 2021 and razed in 2022.

The El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission agreed to close and demolish the pool and adjoining poolhouse due to its poor condition and difficulties in finding a commercial swimming-pool contractor or service provider to evaluate the pool and make recommendations for costly repairs, upgrades and improvements.

The pool shut down during the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and did not re-open in 2021 because the facility did meet state health department standards.

Rucks said he wants to make sure the city and EPPC follow through with plans to replace the Mattocks Park pool with a new aquatic facility/water feature.

Commissioners have said they are not sure if a new facility would be placed in Mattocks Park, noting that the planning process includes public feedback.

Rucks, a 1992 graduate of El Dorado High School, said he had another reason for his decision to pursue another term on the city council.

“Also, I feel like we need some younger people (on the council),” he said.

Rucks noted that he was in Dayton, Tennessee, officiating a game at a National Association of Christian Athletes basketball tournament when he heard the election results.

“I’m just blessed that I got a victory,” Rucks said.

Weinischke and Rucks’s terms will begin Jan. 1, 2025. Election

A total of 3,201 ballots were cast in Union County during the primary election, according to unofficial results from the UCEC.

There are a total of 26,915 registered voters in the county.

The election was the first to be held since Union County switched to voting centers, a model that allows registered voters to cast their ballots at any polling place in the county.

The El Dorado Municipal Auditorium served as the voting center in El Dorado.

Early voting began Feb. 19 and election commissioners said the number of voters visiting voting centers picked up on Super Tuesday.

A total of 2,426 votes were cast in Republican primary races, while 715 voters made their selections on the Democratic tickets in the county.

In the U.S. presidential race, former President Donlad Trump garnered 2,014 votes in Union County in his bid for a second four-year term in the

White House.

Incumbent President Joe Biden received 606 votes in the Union County Democratic primary. According to unofficial election results posted by the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office, Robin G. Roark beat out opponent Horace Ray Charles 375 - 336 in the Democratic race for the District 96 state representative’s seat.

Union County voters favored Charles, of El Dorado, with a vote of 67 to 50.

Roark, a Fordyce native, will face incumbent Rep. Sonia Baker (R) during the General Election in November.

Proposed school district millage increases were defeated in every school district throughout Union County, except Parkers Chapel, where the measure was approved with a vote of 123 - 106.

In El Dorado, 1,081 voters opposed the increase, while 797 people supported the proposal.

Election results in other county school districts were:

• Junction City — 96 For, 212 Against.

• Strong-Huttig — 87 For, 126 Against.

• Smackover-Norphlet — 191 For, 295 Against.

Union County Election Commissioner Mike Hays said Super Tuesday went smoothly in Union County until commissioners hit a snag at the end of the night.

There was a delay in tabulating results from the Calion voting center, the final precinct to come in Tuesday night, due to a damaged flash drive, county election commissioners explained.

Hays said a total of 54 votes were cast in Calion.

The UCEC reached out to the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office for guidance and commissioners followed a recommendation to use a tabulator that had been set aside for provisional ballots.

Hays and Commissioner Floyd Thomas said there were no provisional or any other outstanding ballots to be considered in the primary election.

Hays said the UCEC was able to match up results that were recorded electronically with printed versions of the ballots from Calion.

The UCEC provided the final election updates just before 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Commissioners are tentatively scheduled to meet Monday to certify the election results and forward them to the secretary of state’s office.