When Northwest Arkansas' voters cast their ballots at early voting locations or at voting centers on Election Day, it will be an experience like none of us have ever had.
At least we hope that's the case.
If anything except the actual casting of votes seems at all like any previous election, something's not quite right.
The Nov. 3 general election is still more than two months away, but for election officials in Arkansas, that's starting to feel like it's tomorrow. They've had a busy year so far and it doesn't get any easier until the votes are counted up and certified.
Secretary of State John Thurston, whose office is responsible for coordinating elections statewide, told this newspaper last week the 75 counties are "working really hard to put things in place to make sure the polling sites are safe. They're going to have the equipment to do so."
Among the novelties of this election will be disposable styluses available for every voter. They can be used to sign electronic poll books and to touch the electronic voting machines' screens, with the hope they'll avoid transferring any viruses.
"They've been ordered, they're coming from China, they're being delivered," Thurston said.
Wait, what?
OK, all that really matters is that they work, but remember in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when Indiana Jones, who is afraid of snakes, looks down into a pit into which he needs to descend and sees a floor covered with asps? "Why did it have to be snakes?" he asks. We're thinking along the same lines about those boxes of styluses: Why did it have be made in China?
It'll be fine, and cheap -- just 10 cents per stylus, Thurston reported -- but for voting in the midst of a pandemic, a good ol' American-made stylus would have been a nice touch. Oh, well: It's the vote that counts, and the stylus just goes in the trash.
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