The Culture Vulture loves crunching numbers almost as much as attending cultural events.

Here are some thoughts about the results from the February 9 MacArthur Park Bond election.  These bonds will pay for improvements to the Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History and MacArthur Park.  Excess revenues from the bonds will be available for the Little Rock Zoo, Museum of Discovery, other Little Rock parks and other Little Rock cultural institutions.

There were 7,990 votes cast in the special election.  This was 6.61% of the electorate.  By comparison, there were 4,462 ballots cast in the July 2015 Central Arkansas Library System special election and 6,995 ballots cast in the December 2013 Robinson Center special election.  The latter election brought 6.14% of voters to the polls.

Comparing early and absentee voters to election day voters:

• Robinson (December 2013) – 871 or 12.45% of all ballots cast
• CALS (July 2015) – 750 or 16.81% of all ballots cast
• MacArthur Park (February 2016) – 1,171 or 14.66% of all ballots cast

The top ten precincts for voter participation on February 9:

107 – LRFD Station #10 —– 23.66%
106 – LRFD Station #10 —– 22.85%
109 – Pulaski Heights Presbyterian —–  18.17%
91 – Cammack Village City Hall —– 17.43%
108 – Woodlawn Baptist —– 17.33%
90 – Second Presbyterian —– 15.86%
112 – Pulaski Heights Presbyterian —– 15.00%
96 –  St. Mark’s Episcopal —– 13.42%
70 – Pleasant Valley CoC —–  12.58%
92 – St. Paul UMC —–  12.27%

While most of these are in the midtown area of Little Rock, some are in the western portion of Little Rock.  They tend to have the highest percentage of voter turnout in primary, general and special elections regardless of what or who is on the ballot.

The top 10 precincts for number of voters were:
109 – Pulaski Heights Presbyterian —– 497
106 – LRFD Station #10 —– 351
107 – LRFD Station #10 —– 308
90 – Second Presbyterian —– 260
71 – Pulaski Academy —– 252
108 – Woodlawn Baptist —– 238
114 – Arkansas Arts Center —– 230
88 – St. James UMC —– 223
95 – Grace Presbyterian —– 211
68 – Chenal Valley Church —– 204

These results spread from downtown to midtown to west Little Rock and are fairly evenly distributed.

There were twelve precincts in which over 90% of the voters cast ballots in favor of the bonds.  Precinct 61 at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church was 100% in favor of it. But there was only one ballot cast.  Of the remaining eleven precincts in which more than one vote was cast, here are the rankings by percentage:

112 – Pulaski Heights Presbyterian —– 96.97
118 – Dunbar Recreation Center —– 95.83
114 – Arkansas Arts Center —– 95.65
109 – Pulaski Heights Presbyterian —– 94.77
107 – LRFD Station #10 —– 94.16
108 – Woodlawn Baptist  —– 92.86
79 – Henderson UMC —– 92.59
128 – St. John Vision Center —– 92.37
90 – Second Presbyterian —– 91.54
110 – Woodlawn Baptist  —– 91.3
135 – Pilgrim Rest Baptist —– 91.18

Again, they are fairly evenly distributed from downtown to midtown to west Little Rock.