The loss of a polling site in the Jefferson County town of Sherrill has one candidate expressing concern that his opponent in the District 13 Justice of the Peace runoff election has been handed a competitive advantage in the race.
Jeff Edwards of Sherrill, who is facing incumbent Justice of the Peace Brenda Bishop Gaddy of Altheimer, said the closure of the polling site in Sherrill puts him at a disadvantage, now that voters from six precincts in Sherrill, Tucker and Wright will be required to travel to Altheimer to cast a ballot on Tuesday.
In the March 3 Democratic primary, Gaddy and Edwards were the two top candidates, with Gaddy receiving 222 votes to Edwards' 194. Because neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote, they were forced into a runoff.
In the three weeks since the primary, however, a pandemic that many believed at the time would be a minor annoyance has continued spreading across the state, the nation, and the world, and seemingly overnight the entire landscape changed. In Arkansas, the first case of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, was confirmed on March 11 at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. In the two weeks since, cases have risen in different parts of the state, and Arkansas recorded its first deaths.
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An executive order by Gov. Asa Hutchinson allowed emergency consolidation of polling sites and expanded absentee voting eligibility to all voters, shrinking the number of Jefferson County polling sites for the runoff from 14 to six. That number then dropped to five when Sherrill Mayor Jody Campbell gave the order that Sherrill City Hall would not be a polling site on March 31, forcing the consolidation of the Sherrill and Altheimer polling sites.
Edwards said he has a lot of support in the communities around his home in Sherrill, but he said he fears his supporters may not make the trip to Altheimer on the day of the runoff, something he said could cost him the election.
"In District 13, there's a couple of areas that's over 30 miles from Altheimer," he said. "On that side of the river, there's an older populace, and I don't know of many people who want to drive over 60 miles round-trip just to vote, especially with everything that's going on with this coronavirus."
In addition, Edwards said, Gaddy is a member of Mt. Bayou Baptist Church in Altheimer, the location of the polling site on March 31.
"My opponent has the opportunity to have the polling site at her place of worship, and she is a resident of the largest voting populace in District 13, which is Altheimer," he said. "It's going to be a challenge."
Contacted by phone on Thursday, Gaddy did not confirm whether she is a member of Mt. Bayou Baptist Church, but she did indicate that she thought his objections were more of a political ploy than a genuine concern.
"I'm not commenting on that because he has given me many, many, many challenges," Gaddy said. "I've been really, really quiet with that because I do know politics can get really ugly, and I'm not going to badger him one way or the other. I'm just going to let the people speak for themselves."
Gaddy said the spread of covid-19, coupled with the fact that runoff elections typically see a low voter turnout, presents enough challenges for both of them.
"People don't want to vote twice, I know that," she said. "Both of us are facing the same challenges, really, with the corona cases that's going on, but there's nothing I can do about it. If the people's going to vote, they're going to vote anyway."
State Desk on 03/29/2020