Family Council Estimates As Many As One In Ten Voters in March Primary Saw Guide

Family Council estimates it distributed enough copies of its 2024 Arkansas Voter’s Guide in print and online to reach one in ten voters who participated in the March primary elections.

Since 1990, the Arkansas Voter’s Guide has been one of the most important services we provide.

We survey the candidates on issues voters care about — like abortion, education, and so on — and we publish their survey responses in print and online at ArkansasVotersGuide.com.

Our guide is nonpartisan. It doesn’t favor one candidate over another, and we don’t use it to make endorsements. It’s strictly a tool that voters can use to learn more about where their candidates stand.

Since February, Family Council distributed more than 27,000 printed copies of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide to likely voters statewide and directed thousands of people to ArkansasVotersGuide.com to view candidate surveys online.

Most of the printed guides went to couples, families, and churches across the state — meaning each copy likely was shared and used by more than one person.

Altogether, our team estimates that Family Council’s voter’s guide may have reached one out of every ten voters who participated in the March 5 primaries.

We want to thank everyone who helped make the Arkansas Voter’s Guide so successful during the 2024 spring primaries.

We look forward to distributing thousands more voter’s guides ahead of the General Election this November.

Family Council Distributed Enough Voter’s Guides to Reach One in Ten Voters in May Primaries

Family Council distributed enough copies of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide in print and online to reach approximately one in ten voters who participated in the May primary elections.

The Arkansas Voter’s Guide is one of the most important services we provide.

We survey the candidates on issues like abortion, education, marriage, critical theory, and so on, and we publish their survey responses in print and online at ArkansasVotersGuide.com.

Our guide is nonpartisan. It doesn’t favor one candidate over another, and we don’t use it to make endorsements. It’s strictly a tool that voters can use to learn a little more about where their candidates stand on the issues that matter to them. It’s a service Family Council has been pleased to provide to Arkansans since 1990.

This spring Family Council distributed approximately 37,400 printed copies of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide statewide.

These guides went to families and churches all across the state.

In addition to that, more than 8,100 people visited the voter’s guide online at ArkansasVotersGuide.com in May.

Altogether, our team estimates that Family Council’s voter’s guide may have reached approximately one out of every ten voters who participated in the May 24 primaries.

Even if some of the people who looked at our guide decided not to vote, many copies of the printed guide went to couples or groups of people — such as Sunday school classes — which means they were shared and used by more than one person. It’s possible the actual number of voters reached is higher than one in ten.

The Arkansas Voter’s Guide was a major success during the May 2022 primaries. We want to thank everyone who helped make that possible. We look forward to distributing thousands more voter’s guides ahead of the General Election this fall.

Addressing Rumors Regarding Race for Arkansas Senate District 35

As a supporter of Family Council, you need to know the truth regarding rumors about candidate Tyler Dees’ responses to survey questions that appeared in the Family Council Primary Election Voter’s Guide.

It has been said by several people from Northwest Arkansas who have contacted us that Family Council refused to allow Tyler Dees to change his answer to question number two on our survey.  That question dealt with COVID-19 vaccine mandates by employers.  This rumor is untrue.

Tyler Dees and every other candidate running in the May 24 primary had almost three weeks to let us know if they wanted to change any of their answers to our survey. In addition, before printing the voter’s guide we sent every candidate a copy of their responses and asked them to review their answers and change anything they wished to change before we printed the voter’s guide. Tyler Dees reviewed his responses, and he asked us to make changes to his survey. We made all the changes he asked us to make. We sent him the changed survey, and he approved it.

We ordered 30,000 printed voter’s guides, and we published the voter’s guide online. After the order was placed for printing and after the guide was published online, Tyler Dees contacted Family Council and asked to change his answer to question number two by adding written comments. We explained that we were glad to make the previous changes, but that after the voter’s guides are printed and published online, we never allow candidates to make any more changes.

Imagine how confusing it would be for voters if we allowed all the candidates to keep changing their answers all the way up until the election.  Imagine how confusing it would be to have printed guides with one answer and online guides with another.

We have discussed these rumors with Tyler Dees, and he recently posted his response online. “Hi Friends, I wanted to make sure you all knew that the Family Council and their survey is wonderful. I love what they stand for and have been in talks with them and have nothing but great things to say about them. They had deadlines and couldn’t add any comments which is completely understandable.”

As you may know, there is a runoff election on June 21 in Senate District 35. Early voting begins on June 14.  You can view each candidate’s answers online at: https://arkansasvotersguide.com/ .

Below are phone numbers for each candidate in the runoff for Arkansas Senate District 35.

Tyler Dees:  (479) 861-4741

Gayla Hendren McKenzie: (479) 787-6411

In addition, another rumor has circulated that Family Council is a “Political Action Committee.” This is not true. Family Council is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.  Political Action Committees campaign for or against a particular candidate. Our tax status does not permit us to endorse or favor one candidate over another.

The Family Council Voter’s Guide is Arkansas’ largest non-partisan election guide. We have been publishing this guide for 32 years.  We provide candidates a free opportunity to answer a short survey regarding social, moral, economic, and governmental issues.  We publish the results of that survey in voter’s guides for the Primary and General Elections. We provide this as a free service to the people of Arkansas to enable them to cast a more informed vote for candidates who reflect their values.

For more information, contact:  Jerry Cox  (501) 375-7000.