Michael Pakko

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“I plan to focus on election reform proposals as a key part of my campaign. We should be encouraging voters to participate and in order to do so, we need to provide more competitiveness to the process.“

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Reform the primary processPart of the tradition of one-party rule is the idea that primary elections have exaggerated importance. This year, the Republicans limited participation in their primary elections. In doing so, they make an important point: The primaries are intended to give the political parties a process for selecting their candidates for the general election. Their rules are controlled by the parties themselves. So why are the taxpayers paying for them? We should end taxpayer support of primary elections, and disengage the election calendar from the whims of the parties’ candidate selection processes.

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Change the election calendarOur primary elections and deadlines for filing are way too early! In 2015 the legislature moved to primary election date from May to March, in order to have a Super-Tuesday primary. Now they’ve made that change apply to every election. Why? Because it protects incumbents. In order to file to run for office with one of the two major political parties, or even as an independent, someone has to commit a full year in advance of the general election. Citizens should be able to step up to run for office on a more appropriate timeline—at least until after the legislature has finished its fiscal session.

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Reform the rules for independent candidatesIn Libertarian Party of Arkansas v. Thurston, the Libertarian Party won a major victory in overturning many of the restrictions on the formation of “new” political parties. Yet some of the obstacles that federal courts deemed unconstitutional in our case are still on the books restricting ballot access for independent candidates. As it stands, independent candidates must file a year in advance, then collect signatures during a narrowly-defined window in the middle of the winter. No wonder there are so few independent candidates on the ballot in this year’s election.

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Adopt ranked-choice votingA principle of the democratic ideal of majority rule is that a decisive election requires a majority of the voters to approve. In Arkansas’ primary elections, that requires a run-off election if there are more than two candidates and none receives a majority of votes. A more efficient way of doing things would be for voters to rank their choices, and the second-choice of voters is then counted after the lowest-vote candidate is eliminated. It’s just like a run-off, but built into first round of voting.Arkansas election laws require run-off elections for primary elections but not for the general election. In a rigidly controlled two-party system there is no need. Choices are already restricted to two, at most, or so the assumption goes. In 2025 the legislature banned the use of ranked-choice voting. That’s how much the idea of allowing more choices on the ballot scares the entrenched political establishment.

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Allow access for other political parties.The Libertarian Party of Arkansas has been certified as a “new” political party for eight consecutive election cycles. This has required our party to collect petition signatures every two years in order to have our candidates appear on the ballot (plus two federal lawsuits to protect even that opportunity). The problem is the next step: becoming an established party. Current law requires 3% of the vote in either the gubernatorial or presidential election, depending on which year it is. This is an unduly restrictive definition that fails to recognize the value of a political party in down-ballot races, nearer to the grassroots.The Libertarian Party has long advocated a more expansive criterion: 3% of the vote in any statewide election. Our initiative is presently embodied in a proposed Political Party Recognition Act.

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“As Arkansas Secretary of State, I would make it my mission to recruit and hire the best administrators and employees available, regardless of party affiliation. More choices make for better decisions.”

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When both sides of the two-party duopoly accuse each other of defrauding the system and disenfranchising the voters, the integrity of the office that oversees elections is itself called into question. We need to elect a Secretary of State who can rise above the bickering and serve as an honest broker who is dedicated to serve the people, not the political parties in charge.

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End GerrymanderingThe two major parties have corralled us into distinct constituencies where the parties can choose our representatives. We should have a nonpartisan redistricting commission that uses strictly non-political standards to define legislative districts.

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The Libertarian Party of Arkansas has consistently argued in favor of legislation to revise the definition of an established political party. We propose that a party should retain its ballot-access status if it receives at least 3 percent of the vote in any statewide race. Because there are some election cycles where there are no statewide races other than president, the ballot retention should last for two electoral cycles. This is essentially the same system used in other neighboring states, for example — Oklahoma with a 2.5 percent threshold and Missouri with a 2 percent threshold.