Jefferson County voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide five Democratic preferential primary runoffs. Precinct sites will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and not all of the races will be on all the ballots.
The county judge’s race, pitting Pine Bluff Assistant Police Chief Ivan Whitfield against former Pine Bluff Mayor Dutch King, has drawn the most interest.
Whitfield led in the initial May 22 tabulations, but outdistanced King by only 298 votes with nearly 9,100 cast. Justice of the Peace Alfred Carroll, who has since endorsed Whitfield, was a distant third.
Tuesday’s winner will meet Republican Justice of the Peace Ted Harden in the Nov. 6 general election.
In another closely-watched encounter, Jefferson County Judge Mike Holcomb is being challenged by Sheridan’s Dorothy Hall, a retired University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service executive, for the Arkansas House of Representative’s District 10 seat.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Holcomb paced the three-candidate, first-round contest with a 45-percent share of the vote while Hall collected 30 percent. Star City Mayor Gene Yarbrough picked up the remaining 25 percent.
The victor in the Hall-Holcomb match will face Republican Charles Roberts in November.
There will be two U.S. Congressional bouts, Scott Ellington and Clark Hall for the 1st District nod, and Gene Jeffress and Q. Byrum Hurst for the 4th District nomination. Republican Rick Crawford is the incumbent in the 1st District. Ellington or Clark will oppose Republican Tom Cotton in the 4th District in November, where incumbent Democrat Mike Ross is stepping down.
DeShawn Bennett and Bryan Beasley are seeking the constable’s job in Vaugine Township.
According to the county clerk’s office, about 570 persons marked ballots in early voting at the courthouse on Monday, bringing the early voting total to just over 2,600. The count was figured just before 5 p.m., when voting was to have ended.