by Ainsley Platt, Arkansas Advocate
October 28, 2025
An Arkansas judge said during a Tuesday hearing that he planned to rule as early as Wednesday on a petition asking to set an earlier date for a special election to fill House District 70’s vacant seat.
The petition, filed last week by the Democratic Party of Arkansas in Pulaski County, seeks to force the state to move up a special election to replace the former Republican Rep. Carlton Wing, who resigned last month to become the new executive director and CEO of Arkansas PBS.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders scheduled the special primary and general elections for March 3 and June 9, respectively — the same dates as Senate District 26’s special election, which is facing a separate legal challenge.
The plaintiffs argued in legal filings and during the hearing that holding the special election after the Legislature’s 2026 fiscal session in April violated the constitutional rights of District 70’s voters as well as state law.
The 30-day fiscal session is scheduled to start on April 8, 2026.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Shawn Johnson said he couldn’t issue a ruling from the bench, citing a need to study the complexities of the laws in question, but that he was “going to work on this very quickly … in honor of the right to vote.”
He said a decision would likely come by the end of the week.
The lawsuit says the proclamation issued by Sanders setting the special election dates “is unlawful, exceeds her constitutional and statutory powers, and fails to discharge her mandatory duty to set a special election for House District 70.”
“Since the focus of the Fiscal Session is how to spend the people’s tax dollars, the Proclamation imposes taxation without representation,” the petition states.
The party’s lawyers asked Johnson to issue a writ of mandamus ordering Sanders to schedule the special general election on March 3. Attorney Jess Askew III argued on the plaintiffs’ behalf Tuesday that March 3 was the earliest practicable date the special general election could be held.
A writ of mandamus is a court order compelling a government official to perform a duty they are already legally required to do.
Under Arkansas law, Sanders was required to schedule a special election date to fill the House District 70 seat within 150 days of Wing resigning, unless she found it was “impracticable or unduly burdensome” to do so. Further, if the election couldn’t be held within 150 days, it had to be held on the earliest practicable date after that statutory deadline.
Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office, which is representing Sanders and Secretary of State Cole Jester in the lawsuit, disputed that holding the general election on March 3 was practicable, citing testimony from State Board of Election Commissioners Director Chris Madison and state election coordinator Laura Wiles.
If Johnson issued the writ, Senior Assistant Attorney General Ryan Hale argued, would strip “the Governor of her discretionary authority to determine the soonest ‘practicable’ date for the election.”
Askew argued that once 150 days passed, Sanders no longer had discretion in setting the date — it had to be scheduled for the earliest feasible date. He said the election schedule set out in the complaint was practicable, because identical dates were used for a special election in House District 34 after Rep. John W. Walker of Little Rock died on Oct. 28, 2019 — exactly six years ago.
The judge asked both sides who they believed determined what was a practicable election date, while also saying the language of the law invited some consideration of what dates are reasonably accomplishable.
Hale said Sanders was the one who made that determination.
Askew said there was no longer any discretion after 150 days, repeatedly pointing to how the House District 34 special election, also in Pulaski County, was undertaken without issue.
Another Pulaski County judge ordered Sanders to move up Senate District 26’s special election last week following a challenge by a Franklin County voter. The judge ruled in favor of the voter, but that ruling is being appealed by the plaintiff and the defendants.
A June 9 election would be 252 days after Wing’s Sept. 30 resignation — or 152 days after the 150-day mark. The average number of days a special election has been held after the 150-day mark since 2011 is about 25 days, according to an unpublished Senate memo.
Four registered voters in District 70 are also plaintiffs in the case — Cordelia Smith-Johnson, Scott Perkins, Janie Ginocchio, and Julie Rhodes.
