Early voting begins Tuesday for a special primary election in House District 36 in southeast Pulaski County.
The primary election is Aug. 6. Because no Republicans filed for the reliably Democratic seat, the winner of the Democratic primary will be unopposed in the November special general election.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Pulaski County Regional Building, 501 W. Markham St. in Little Rock, during early voting, which runs until Aug. 5, excluding Saturday and Sunday.
Additional early-voting sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Friday at the following locations:
• Sue Cowan Williams Library, 1800 S. Chester St., Little Rock.
• Dee Brown Library, 6325 Baseline Road, Little Rock.
A full list of polling locations for the Aug. 6 primary election can be found on the election commission's website, votepulaski.net. Additional questions about absentee ballots, voter registration and voting locations can be answered by calling (501) 340-8336.
The five Democrats running for the seat are Denise Ennett, Philip Hood, Darrell Stephens, Roderick Talley and Russell Williams III.
Ennett, a board member at the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Mosaic Templars Center, led all other candidates in the only month of reported fundraising. She took in $12,563.
Williams is a student at Philander Smith College.
Hood is a former member of the Workers' Compensation Commission.
Stephens ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the seat last year.
Talley, the only candidate to make it on the Democratic ballot by gathering signatures rather than by paying a filing fee, has made his much-publicized legal battles with the Little Rock Police Department a centerpiece of his campaign.
Talley is also facing trial in a felony forgery case in Cross County in September. If convicted, Talley could be barred from taking office.
If no candidate wins an outright majority of the vote, then the top two candidates will meet in a Sept. 3 runoff election.
The special election was called in June after the previous seat-holder, then-House Minority Leader Charles Blake, resigned in order to take a job as Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr.'s chief of staff. Blake has not endorsed anyone in the primary.
SundayMonday on 07/29/2019