The year is 2018, and it seems everything is moving online. Even the government. Arkansas has made some fantastic strides moving services online. You can pay property taxes and renew your driver's license. But there's another area that desperately needs to go digital.
Registering to vote is outdated here in Arkansas. The only way it can be done is to mail in a paper registration form. The process can take several days to complete, when it could be done much faster. If you visit the Arkansas Secretary of State's website on voter registration, you're greeted with this message, "You must fill out a paper Voter Registration Application."
Why is that? The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 37 states and the District of Columbia have online voter registration.
It's time for Arkansas to join those 37 states. Mailing in paper forms can remain an option for those without Internet access, but the state should offer a digital option for everybody else.
If 37 states can use a safe and fiscally responsible process--and a secure one--to enable online voter registration, there's no reason we can't. Come on, even Louisiana has online voter registration.
Having an online system would also make it easier to update an address after you've moved or change a name after you've married. There are just too many advantages for Arkansas to sit in the dark on this.
So lawmakers, we urge you: When it comes to online voter registration, vote yes.
(NB: Registration is different from actual voting. Let's not cast votes over the Internet until we can get these Russian hackers out of our Google searches.)
Editorial on 09/21/2018