I attended a House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting at the state Capitol earlier this month to hear a proposal for reviewing current election laws and offering up some solutions. The presentations were well received, and an interim study will be convened.
But the most impressive presentation was by a Girl Scout named Anna Claire Tilley from Fort Smith. She is in the 11th grade.
This young woman's Girl Scout Gold Award Project for 2019-2021 is to move Arkansas to Online Voter Registration (OVR). She has studied this concept and shared that over 37 states and Washington, D.C., are doing this already, with more coming. Oklahoma is in the process of implementing OVR. She provided cost estimates, time estimates, and multiple reasons to move Arkansas in this direction. It's a process proven to save tax dollars, streamline the current paper application system, and, most significantly, increase the number of registered voters.
Impressive!
But the focus of some committee members quickly moved to asking the grown-up panel members (who were all state employees) about the status of our counties with or without new voting gear. And they discussed how to get more money to spend to get the new voting machines to all our counties.
Millions of dollars are being spent on voting machines with short life-spans of six to eight years. No one there considered any option for voting that might reduce the need for constant replacement of voting machines. They did discuss options for counties to borrow money to buy machines.
This was surprising considering the current panic over the coronavirus. Traditional voting offers plenty of opportunities for contracting the virus, with multiple people handling paper applications, voting machines with touchscreens, pens for signing in at the polling place, and a world of other potential issues. It really is time to consider increasing the option of voting by mail, also known as absentee voting. This would greatly reduce the need to staff polling places, expensive equipment to fix or repair daily, and lines at the polls.
It's time to consider other options.
Sadly, most of our elected officials will happily spend millions of our tax dollars on voting machines that coincidentally will likely mean fewer voting locations. Arkansas has the lowest voter turnout in the nation. Expensive machines in fewer locations will not change that.
The committee did balk, however, at spending around $300,000 on upgrading the foundation we use to get voters to participate in the first place; that's voter registration. Currently we do it all on paper. This paper, once filled out by the potential voter, has to be mailed or delivered to either the county clerk or the secretary of state. If it goes to the secretary of state, it's then mailed to the county clerk. The clerk will then enter the info into a database (if it's all completed correctly). Then the clerk will mail a postcard to the voter saying they are registered! Imagine the time involved with that.
Whereas online is, well, done online. The clerk will still have to verify the input and there are very tight security measures in place to verify the voter information. When confirmed, the clerk will notify the voter they are registered! In an email! See the time-saving, and cost-saving right there? Plus, there will still be a way to register on paper.
And if you're worrying about ineligible voters rushing to the polls to cast a ballot, remember all new registrants must show a valid photo ID to vote.
Anna Claire Tilley and others like her will change the low voter participation rate in Arkansas. This is a mission for her, and she will not falter from this path.
Arkansas will have Online Voter Registration in the near future because of her. People are listening. This is a bipartisan effort across the country. When Ms. Tilley started this journey, she did her research, and then reached out to her own district's representative, Rep. Justin Boyd, R-Fort Smith, and made her case. At the close of this meeting, Representative Boyd pledged to submit legislation to move Arkansas to Online Voter Registration in the next legislative session. Thank you, Representative Boyd.
Thank you, Anna Claire Tilley. The Girl Scouts of America are proud of you, and so are a lot of others, me included. You will earn your Gold Award. And Arkansas will be the beneficiary.
------------v------------
Susan Inman was director of elections for a former Arkansas secretary of State, and former member of the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners. She has volunteered with the U.S. Department of State as an international election observer, observing over a dozen elections in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
Editorial on 03/23/2020