On January 27, the Arkansas Senate defeated SB 122, which would have moved the presidential primary and primaries for all other office from May to March. If the bill had passed, the petition deadlines for non-presidential independents would have moved from March of the election year, to December of the year before the election. The bill got 17 yes votes and 13 no votes, but all bills need 18 votes in the Senate to pass.
On January 30, the bill was brought up again on the Senate floor, but this time it received only 16 yes votes, and 15 no votes. So, again, it narrowly failed.
A bill like this should never nearly failed, it should always fail by a lot. When the two main political parties get to decide things like this, that is a sign of the system not working for the average vote. It’s a disgrace this was even close.