Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued executive orders in March, May and June specifically authorizing no-excuse absentee voting for a few small runoff and special elections due to the virus outbreak.
So, now, with Asa's president insisting that people swim through the coronavirus to vote in November, the governor is saying it's enough for now that we have broad legal opinions holding that anyone who wants to vote absentee in the general election for fear of the virus may do so.
Hutchinson has appeared in recent comments to want to assume his way through this matter without using the emergency-order authority he availed himself of previously.
It's conceivable that trying to assume his way through this matter without a clear executive directive could invite litigious parties to challenge the legitimacy of outcomes.
I'm not here to make trouble but seek truth. It's in that spirit that I will now tell you that I'd written the above before receiving a response Sunday to a question on these matters that I'd directed to the governor through his press aide.
I will stipulate that, with the response now received, the preceding paragraphs might become moot.
The governor referred me to a lengthy statement he made May 24. At that time, he said it was too early to decide whether emergency circumstances would be similar in November to those attending his executive orders allowing pockets of no-excuse absentee voting earlier. He said he would consult county clerks and election commissions to make that decision on or about Aug. 1.
What he told me Sunday is that nothing has changed on that. More to the point, he said his declaration last week--that he agreed with Secretary of State John Thurston's lawyer-
advised thinking that anyone who wants to vote absentee because of the virus may do so--was "guidance" and not necessarily his last word.
The governor added, "It does appear likely that there will be covid concerns in the November election and thus the emergency is likely to continue. My original timetable remains the same to see if there are any additional steps that should be taken for November."
He's saying he could yet issue an emergency-based executive order.
I tend to think he acts with plodding incrementalism--that he likes to keep possible future actions warm on the back burner.
Hutchinson also told me this: "You are consumed with making this story about President Trump and you are wrong. The issue is about Arkansas voters. My timeline and decisions are based upon what is best for Arkansas."
I admit that I tend to get consumed with the atrocious president. And the fact of the matter is that I doubt there exists any method by which we might vote in Arkansas in November that wouldn't deliver our six electoral votes to that atrocity.
So my first few paragraphs need to join Asa's possible executive order on the row of backburners. Let's see where the pots go on or about Aug. 1.
Meantime, it is not insignificant that the governor and secretary of state, both Republicans disinclined to mail voting, have publicly committed to positions that we may all vote absentee without any excuse in the November election.
You can go online now to your county clerk, or visit that office, while masked, to pick up the required application for an absentee ballot to be mailed to you at the proper time. You might want to go ahead and get that done considering the likely mad rush later.
One other element of this story remains pending. Litigants have sued asking courts to enjoin state election officials from enforcing any restriction on absentee voting--amid the virus first, but, actually, altogether.
State Democratic Party Chairman Michael John Gray has told me he worries that the suit could have the unintended consequence of the Arkansas Supreme Court further restricting absentee voting. He has said it would be better to drop the suit and push for the executive order by the governor.
David Couch, one of the lawyers preparing the suit, told me that the authority to vote absentee for any reason needs to be made explicit, which either a governor's executive order or a court ruling would accomplish.
He said the suit needs to move forward for that reason at this point, as well as to formalize the assertion that no-excuse absentee voting would extend permanently beyond the virus.
None of that suggests that Arkansas is at risk of becoming a full vote-by-mail state. In a vote-by-mail state, everyone who is registered gets a ballot sent to them. Absentee voting requires affirmative action to apply. Polling places will stay open for the virus-defiant. That probably makes it more palatable to conservative thought.
Finally, no essay on this subject would be complete without saying the unprecedented absentee-voting frenzy this fall will cost counties money, and that federal virus-relief aid will need to be tapped.
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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 [email protected]. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.