When a city reimburses the county for its share of election expenses, does the formula's denominator include voters from unincorporated areas of the county or just voters from cities and towns?
Plain-English summary
Arkansas counties run general elections and pay the bills. A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a)(2) requires each city or incorporated town within the county to reimburse the county board of election commissioners for a share of those costs. The reimbursement formula is:
City reimbursement = 50% × Total election cost × (city voters in the election ÷ total voters in the election)
Representative Gramlich asked the AG to settle a dispute about the denominator. Two readings:
- Wide reading: All voters who cast ballots in the county election, including those who live in unincorporated areas. (Arkansas's "Statewide" or "Countywide" voters.)
- Narrow reading: Only voters from cities and incorporated towns in the county.
The AG picks the wide reading. The statutory text says "the total number of voters casting ballots in each election." It contains no geographical limitation. Reading "total" to exclude any voters would give the word a meaning it does not bear and would also produce an absurd result: cities would shoulder a disproportionately high share of costs because they would be split against a smaller pie.
The AG applies basic statutory-construction canons: read the text "just as it reads," giving words "their ordinary and accepted meaning," and construe so that "no word is left void, superfluous, or insignificant." MacSteel v. Ark. Okla. Gas Corp., 363 Ark. 22 (2005). The phrase "total number of voters" is plain and unambiguous.
What this means for you
If you are a county election commissioner
When you calculate the reimbursement bill for a city, the denominator of the cost-sharing fraction is total countywide voters in the election, not just municipal voters. The numerator is the number of voters from that specific city. If a county had 50,000 total voters and a city had 8,000 voters in the election, the city's share is 50% × Total Election Cost × (8,000 / 50,000) = 8% of the total cost.
If you are a city clerk or city attorney
Make sure the county is using the right denominator. If the county is using only municipal voters as the denominator (artificially small), your city is being overcharged. Ask the county to recalculate using countywide voters, citing this opinion.
If you are a mayor or municipal finance officer
Two reasons your election-cost reimbursement should be smaller than you might fear:
1. The county pays half of the total cost itself (the formula is 50% of the total).
2. Your city's slice is proportional to your share of countywide voters, not to your share of municipal voters.
If your county includes a large unincorporated area
Cities are advantaged by the wide-denominator reading. The bigger the unincorporated population, the smaller each city's slice. The county absorbs unincorporated-area voter cost out of its own 50% share.
If you are a county auditor or accountant
This is a clean formulation: County keeps 50%. Each city pays the other 50% in proportion to its share of the total countywide vote. Validate that your spreadsheets do not exclude unincorporated voters from the denominator. The opinion explicitly endorses the wide reading.
Common questions
What does "total number of voters casting ballots in each election" actually mean?
The aggregate number of voters who cast a ballot in that specific countywide election. Includes voters in cities, incorporated towns, and unincorporated areas. Excludes nothing.
Could the General Assembly change this?
Yes. The legislature could amend § 7-5-104 to specify a different denominator. Until it does, the plain text controls.
Does the formula apply to special elections?
The statute references "general elections and runoff elections for presidential, congressional, state, district, county, township, or municipal offices." The reimbursement formula sits within that scope.
What if a city has very few voters in the election?
The city pays a proportionally small share. The cost-sharing formula scales with participation, so a city with 100 voters in a 50,000-voter election pays 0.2% of half the cost.
Why does the county pay half itself?
The statute. Subsection (a)(1) says counties pay all expenses of these elections. Subsection (a)(2) creates a 50% reimbursement obligation from cities, with the city's share calculated by the fraction. The other 50% stays on the county's books.
What about a township?
A.C.A. § 7-5-104 reimbursement obligation specifically applies to "any city or incorporated town." Townships are a separate matter.
Background and statutory framework
A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a)(1). "All expenses of general elections and runoff elections for presidential, congressional, state, district, county, township, or municipal offices in this state shall be paid by the counties in which they are held."
A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a)(2). "However, any city or incorporated town shall reimburse the county board of election commissioners for the expenses of the elections in an amount equal to a figure derived by multiplying fifty percent (50%) of the total cost of each election by a fraction, the numerator of which shall be the number of voters from the city or incorporated town casting ballots in each election prepared by the county board of election commissioners, and the denominator of which shall be the total number of voters casting ballots in each election."
Statutory construction. MacSteel v. Ark. Okla. Gas Corp., 363 Ark. 22 (2005): construe statutes "just as it reads," give words "their ordinary and accepted meaning in common language," and read so that "no word is left void, superfluous, or insignificant; and meaning and effect are given to every word."
Plain meaning controls. When a statute is plain and unambiguous, courts do not resort to other rules of statutory interpretation. The AG concludes "total number of voters casting ballots in each election" is plain and unambiguous.
Logical check. Excluding unincorporated voters from the denominator would inflate cities' share of cost beyond what the legislature intended. The denominator should reflect total election turnout countywide.
Citations
Statute:
- A.C.A. § 7-5-104 (allocation of general election expenses; cost-sharing formula)
Case:
- MacSteel Div. of Quanex v. Ark. Okla. Gas Corp., 363 Ark. 22, 210 S.W.3d 878 (2005)
Source
Original opinion text
BOB R. BROOKS JR. JUSTICE BUILDING
101 WEST CAPITOL AVENUE
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS 72201
Opinion No. 2025-087
October 16, 2025
The Honorable Zachary Gramlich
State Representative
2020 South T Street
Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901
Dear Representative Gramlich:
I am writing in response to your request for an opinion regarding the calculation of general-election expenses to be reimbursed by a city or incorporated town to a local county board of election commissioners in accordance with A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a), which provides:
(1) All expenses of general elections and runoff elections for presidential, congressional, state, district, county, township, or municipal offices in this state shall be paid by the counties in which they are held.
(2) However, any city or incorporated town shall reimburse the county board of election commissioners for the expenses of the elections in an amount equal to a figure derived by multiplying fifty percent (50%) of the total cost of each election by a fraction, the numerator of which shall be the number of voters from the city or incorporated town casting ballots in each election prepared by the county board of election commissioners, and the denominator of which shall be the total number of voters casting ballots in each election.
You state that there are some concerns among city and county election officials regarding the allocation of these general-election expenses.
Against this background, you ask the following questions:
- Does the denominator of the referenced fraction in subdivision (a)(2) of the above statute include the total number of voters outside of the cities or incorporated towns (i.e., the unincorporated area of the county) that cast a ballot in the election?
Brief response: Yes, the denominator in A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a)(2) includes the total number of voters who cast ballots in the election countywide, including those in unincorporated areas of the county.
- Is the denominator of the referenced fraction in subdivision (a)(2) of the above statute limited to the total number of voters from any city or incorporated town who cast a ballot in the election?
Brief response: No, the denominator in A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a)(2) is not limited to the total number of voters from any city or incorporated town that cast a ballot in an election.
DISCUSSION
Question 1: Does the denominator of the referenced fraction in subdivision (a)(2) of the above statute include the total number of voters outside of the cities or incorporated towns (i.e., the unincorporated area of the county) that cast a ballot in the election?
Yes, the denominator of the referenced fraction in A.C.A. § 7-5-104(a)(2) includes all voters who cast ballots in the county, including those residing in unincorporated areas of the county. This conclusion is supported by principles of statutory interpretation. The first rule in considering the meaning and effect of a statute is to construe the text just as it reads, giving the words their ordinary and accepted meaning in common language. The courts will construe a statute so that no word is left void, superfluous, or insignificant; and meaning and effect are given to every word in the statute if possible. When the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous, there is no need to resort to the rules of statutory interpretation.
The phrase "the denominator of which shall be the total number of voters casting ballots in each election" is plain and unambiguous. It is broad and unqualified, imposing no geographical limitations. Because the statute applies to county-run elections, the denominator necessarily includes all those who cast a vote in the county in a given election. This interpretation also aligns with the statute's logic. If the denominator excluded voters who cast a ballot in a given election when such voters live in the unincorporated areas of the county, then cities and incorporated towns would pay a disproportionately high share of the total election expenses. Thus, the denominator includes all the voters casting ballots in the county in any given election.
Question 2: Is the denominator of the referenced fraction in subdivision (a)(2) of the above statute limited to the total number of voters from any city or incorporated town that cast a ballot in the election?
No. As explained above, limiting the denominator to only voters from cities or incorporated towns would contradict the plain language of the statute. The statute creates a cost-sharing formula where a city or incorporated town reimburses the county for a portion of the election costs based on the relative participation of its voters in the election. That portion is calculated by comparing the number of a city or town's voters (the numerator) to the total number of voters (the denominator) in the election. Restricting the denominator to only municipal voters would artificially inflate a city or town's share of the election costs and undermine the proportionality the statute intends to achieve.
Assistant Attorney General Justin Hughes prepared this opinion, which I hereby approve.
Sincerely,
TIM GRIFFIN
Attorney General