So whatta we got?

THE BIANNUAL train of folks carrying boxes of signatures for submission to the secretary of state’s office has come and gone. Must be election season. Now officials are frantically checking signatures to see what ballot initiatives make the cut for voters come November.

The one thing We the People won’t decide this time is “recreational” marijuana. Arkansas True Grass announced in May it would focus on 2022.

As for those outfits that have handed in signatures, it’s a mix: One group wants to change who redraws legislative and congressional district boundaries, another wants more casinos, and that’s just for starters.

Shifting redistricting to an independent commission sounds good in theory. But if you take away redistricting responsibilities from the governor, the attorney general and the secretary of state—and give those duties to an independent commission—all you do is strip the obvious politics from the process.

Unless the folks nominated to an independent commission are robots, they’re going to have thoughts, opinions, biases and political affiliations. More likely, when a new commission’s lines get warped for political purposes, voters won’t have a constitutional office to blame. Or hold accountable.

Having elected officials draw the political maps isn’t perfect. Gerrymandering is very real. But a better solution would be to force our elected officials to use more technology. We have computer programs now that can track populations and registered voters. Let machines draw the map. They don’t care who has an advantage.

As for adding 16 casinos to Arkansas’ cities, highways and landscape, let’s not.

There will be other issues on the ballot. All of them will require more debate. At the very least, the pandemic has created plenty of time to do just that.