Vote (Editorial)

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Arkansas ranked last in voter turnout in the United States in the 2020 presidential election, 51st behind all the other states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference on Citizenship.

Only 62% of eligible Arkansans were registered to vote in that election, and only 54% actually voted. This compared with a national average of 72.7% of citizens being registered to vote and 66.8% voting.

This state we love ranks low on other measures of well-being, such as life expectancy and infant and maternal health. Progress on improving those statistics will take time, money and the efforts of many people working together.

And there are some systemwide steps that could improve Arkansas’ showing in voter turnout, among them allowing online and same-day voter registration, enabling automatic registration when obtaining a driver’s license and allowing 16-year-olds to preregister to vote. Our own somewhat quirky idea is to make Election Day a holiday.

Don’t think your vote matters? If your vote didn’t matter, candidates wouldn’t be spending an estimated $15.9 billion in the 2024 federal election cycle to win it.

But ultimately, improving the state’s standing depends on just one thing: each individual Arkansan showing up to the polls.