Gov. Asa Hutchinson has been unclear at times on whether the state might permit a virus-driven exception for no-excuse absentee voting in November.
That's voting by mail, the bane of Asa's president, Donald Trump, who says people would steal ballots from mailboxes and mark them against him.
We've had no reports of such criminal behavior from places like Colorado, Oregon and Washington that have practiced mail voting in recent years. Trump mainly needs a reason to serve his ego by saying he didn't really lose if he loses.
Indeed, somebody might steal your mailed ballot. Somebody also might shoot you dead on your walk to the mailbox. But we would still need to permit, for society's convenience, walking to the mailbox.
Hutchinson had seemed open to the emergency possibility of no-excuse absentee voting in November. He has indeed already invoked the exception on a limited basis.
But then he went to Washington and did a public event with the madman president who asked him in front of everyone about mail voting, and the governor got a little fuzzy.
He came home talking about "no-excuse early voting," which we have already. Have you ever voted early? Thought so. Did you have to declare an excuse to do so? Didn't think so.
Basically, Democrats like mail voting because it facilitates a larger turnout that presumably helps them. Basically, Republicans oppose it because they think they do better if people must exercise more personal responsibility in voting than waddling to the mailbox.
Democrats think Republican voters are anti-democratic. Republicans think Democratic voters are uninformed or lazy or criminal.
State law says absentee voting is allowed only upon the assertion of a specific reason for not being able to vote in person. An epidemic would be a general reason.
The issue, thus, is whether to allow absentee voting for a single election without any personal excuse other than the general virus excuse, either by a law change or the governor's emergency executive order.
In a pandemic hot spot with a special no-excuse absentee voting emergency, polls presumably would stay open for the fearless and the nonbelievers--the great Arkansas unmasked. That doesn't sound fair to poll workers, though.
So I asked Hutchinson to clarify and declare. I'll cede him the floor for his response. The governor wrote:
"Based upon the coronavirus emergency, I have issued executive orders to allow no-excuse absentee voting in a handful of runoff elections held in March and special elections held in May and June. The issue is whether the same emergency power should be used for the November election.
"As I have said in my daily updates, it is premature to exercise emergency powers at the time for a November election.
"I asked my legal team to advise on when county clerks have to know the rules for the November election in terms of absentee voting and it is my understanding the deadlines are in August.
"Based upon this timeline, I will make a decision at that time to determine if the emergency necessitates a suspension of normal rules to provide safe voting by using no-excuse absentee ballots in November.
"I have also talked about early voting because increasing the number of polling places for early voting also reduces the risk from the virus. There are fewer lines with greater ease and without crowded polling places.
"Before I make my decision, I will want to know what the health experts say will likely be the extent of the coronavirus spreads and what are the best ways to keep voters and poll workers safe.
"According to the Washington Post story in the Democrat-Gazette on Sunday, thus far just four states have changed their voting rules for the November general election."
That's a fairly clear statement from the governor, flawed only in that he can't really know in August whether the coronavirus will be newly raging in November.
We need a contingency plan.
Clearly the governor wants to go the Republican way if he can. He does not want to waive the usual rules for an emergency unless he must.
I get that. That's why I'd have him announce in August that, while proceeding as if business will apply as usual in November, we will prepare for a possible emergency. Not even the elite epidemiologists can say for sure what the virus would be doing in two months. That's what makes them experts.
I like a lot the separate idea of more early voting locations to both encourage that option and reduce its voter concentration. I'd like to see the hours and days expanded.
What about a "vote-mobile," driving around neighborhoods for two weeks before the election, accepting masked voters one at a time, with six feet between?
I just want to help Arkansas Trump voters with a safety-conscious alternative. I don't want them to risk their health simply for trying to make America great again.
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John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
Editorial on 05/28/2020