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Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-315

Counting votes for unopposed and deceased candidates

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Rubens v. Hodges (1992)

Most recently applied in Helton v. Jacobs (October 2001)

Acts 1969, No. 465, Art. 7, § 17; A.S.A. 1947, § 3-717; Acts 1987, No. 248, § 8; 1991, No. 530, § 1; 1997, No. 451, § 26; 2003, No. 994, § 7; 2007, No. 1020, § 11; 2009, No. 148…

How often courts cite this section

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citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) The votes received by an unopposed candidate in any election held in this state may be counted or tabulated for administrative purposes but shall not be certified, unless otherwise provided by law, by the election officials. The word “UNOPPOSED” shall be inserted on the tally sheet to indicate that the candidate has received a majority of the votes cast in the election. However, the votes received by an unopposed candidate for the office of Mayor, Governor, and Circuit Clerk shall be counted and tabulated by the election officials.

(2) All other unopposed candidates shall be declared and certified as elected in the same manner as if the candidate had been voted upon at the election.

(3) The votes received by any person whose name appeared on the ballot and who withdrew or died after the certification of the ballot shall be counted.

(4) If the person received enough votes to win the election, a vacancy in election shall be declared.

(5) If the person received enough votes to qualify for a runoff, the person's name shall appear on the runoff ballot.

(6) If enough votes are cast for the person to win the runoff, then a vacancy in election shall exist.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.