The special general election to fill the vacant state House District 70 seat must occur on March 3, 2026, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Shawn Johnson ruled on Friday afternoon.

House District 70 — which includes parts of North Little Rock, Sherwood and Gravel Ridge, as well as all of Camp Robinson — was previously represented by Rep. Carlton Wing (R-North Little Rock). Wing resigned his position to take a new job as head of Arkansas PBS, and his legislative seat became vacant on Oct. 1.

State law says the governor must schedule a special election to fill a seat in the House or Senate within 150 days of a vacancy, unless it would be “impractical or unduly burdensome.” **Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders **said it would, in fact, be impractical or unduly burdensome to have the election that soon. She scheduled the special election for June 9, 2026 and provided no explanation for why she believes an earlier date isn’t feasible.

The lawsuit was filed Oct. 21 against Sanders and Secretary of State Cole Jester by the Democratic Party of Arkansas; Cordelia Smith-Johnson, a Democratic candidate for House District 70; and District 70 residents and voters William Scott Perkins, Janie Ginocchio and Julie Rhodes. The plaintiffs argued that Sanders’ plan to hold the special general election on June 9 was illegal and amounted to taxation without representation, and they asked Johnson to order that the election must occur on March 3 — the previously scheduled date for Arkansas primary elections in 2026.

Earlier this week, Johnson held a hearing on the lawsuit. In today’s order, Johnson found the plaintiffs were entitled to the relief they sought.

Johnson differentiated between the parts of Arkansas’s special election laws that are discretionary and those that are not. Under the law, Johnson said, Sanders has complete discretion to set the special election for any date she chooses within 150 days of a vacancy. She also has full discretion to decide that it is impracticable or unduly burdensome to hold the election within 150 days.

“But this is where the discretionary provisions cease, and a non-discretionary provision is inserted,” Johnson wrote.

If the governor decides it would be impracticable or unduly burdensome to hold the election within 150 days, he wrote, “then the special election *shall *be held ‘as soon as practicable’ after the 150th day.” According to the judge, that’s a requirement, not a choice.

Johnson rejected the state’s argument that the governor also has the discretion to decide on which day beyond 150 days to hold a special election:

[F]or purposes of following Ark. Code Ann. § 7-7-105(a)(3)(A)(iii) *someone *has to decide what date after the 150-day vacancy period is “as soon as practicable thereafter. The State suggests that the Governor possesses that power in its office, but if that were true, then it would render the statutory scheme meaningless. In other words, if the Governor has complete discretion over when to hold a special election — whether before or after the 150-day mark — then there would be no reason to have a 150-day limitation at all.

The order focuses largely on the testimony of Pulaski County Circuit Clerk Terri Hollingsworth and Amanda Dickens, the director of elections and election coordinator for the Pulaski County Election Commission. Johnson said both testified that the March 3 date requested by the plaintiffs was practicable and could be accomplished. Indeed, Johnson pointed out, both officials testified that a nearly identical timeline was followed in 2020 to fill a vacancy in House District 34 following the death of **Rep. John Walker **(D-Little Rock).

Johnson’s order only briefly discusses the state’s arguments based on the testimony of their witnesses. He said Laura Wiles, an election coordinator with the Arkansas secretary of state’s office, “had never coordinated a special election for a House vacancy, nor any election in Pulaski County” and was “testifying only to a hypothetical and not to the specific dates and restrictions relative to the facts of the case.

Regarding the nearly half hour of testimony from Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, Johnson wrote only that Madison “explained in his testimony that although there is a specific statute governing special elections, officials must also follow the standard state and federal election laws.”

Johnson rejected the state’s argument that the governor could choose June 9 for the special general election because it was the best available date.

“Importantly, the statutory text provides that the question does not turn on the *most *practicable date,” Johnson wrote, “but the *soonest *practicable date.”

That date, he said, is March 3, based on the testimony of the plaintiff’s witnesses who all said that date would work. Accordingly, Johnson ordered Sanders’ proclamation to “be revised to reflect that the special election for House District 70 shall be held on March 3, 2026, as it is the soonest practicable date on which the special election might be held.”

This is the second case involving special elections to fill legislative vacancies that Sanders and Jester have lost in recent weeks. In September, after Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R-Branch) died, Sanders scheduled the special primary election to fill Stubblefield’s Senate District 26 seat for March 3 and the special general election for June 9. This was 230 days past the state’s 150-day deadline.

Colt Shelby, a farmer from Franklin County who lives in Senate District 26, sued Sanders and Jester on Oct. 6, arguing that state law requires an earlier election and asking for the court to order the special election to occur as soon as practicable after the 150-day deadline. Last week, Circuit Judge Patricia James ruled in favor of Shelby and ordered Sanders and Jester to hold the election on the first practicable date after Jan. 29, the 150th day after Stubblefield’s seat became vacant.

Sanders and Jester have appealed James’ ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court. An appeal of Johnson’s order is likely as well.