LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas officials have a few things on their plate after Election Day, including analyzing voter turnout trends in the state.
Last week, we reported that the early voting turnout was higher in 2024 as over 845,000 Arkansas voters showed up to cast their ballot, according to an official with the Arkansas Secretary of State's office,
Press Secretary Chris Powell said a few trends stood out to officials, such as early voting.
"72% of the voters early voted, which is the highest early vote percentage we've seen," Powell said. "In presidential years, we average about 65% turnout in Arkansas."
According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the state saw a 54.1% voter turnout in 2020 and 68.6% in-person early voter turnout. In the state of Arkansas, there are 1,828,133 registered voters and 1,187,243 as of November 6, 2024.
In Pulaski County, election officials reported an unofficial count of 240,667 registered voters with 108,405 early votes cast.
We asked state officials about the increase in early votes this election, and they told us that this isn't just happening in Pulaski County but across the state as well.
"Somebodya_Brief_AR_508c.pdf may live in one part of the county and work in another part of the county, and the polls are open," Powell said. "We did have some rain the last day or two of voting."
Powell stated that six counties broke the 70% voter turnout mark overall, and about two-thirds of counties across the state fell in the 60th percentile.
To look at the complete list of voter turnout results across the state, click here.
Saline County, in particular, had its second-highest turnout in recent history, with its first coming in at 73.79% in 2020.
UA Little Rock Professor Stephanie Davis said fluctuating voter turnout throughout the years in Arkansas could be due to several factors, such as political party choices, demographics and more.
These factors are what officials say play a huge impact early voting could have on Election Day.
"It's interesting now how we perceive elections because of all the social media algorithms feeding us," Davis said. "In that same way, when we look around us, we're going to see people that vote like us, and generally speaking, people don't see themselves as being that, like, I'm not the one vote that counts. That greatly affects voter turnout."