Open primaries debate begins with no time to spare

One of the most important potential reforms in Arkansas politics could have been stopped dead in its tracks Monday because a truck driver had to attend a class.

Monday was the deadline for sponsors of proposed constitutional amendments to submit at least 89,151 signatures to the secretary of state. That office is now counting how many came from eligible voters while the State Board of Election Commissioners will determine the sufficiency of the ballot titles. If the groups are short of verified signatures, they’ll have time to collect more.

Three petition efforts submitted at least that many signatures, which is an impressive accomplishment in a pandemic. One, Arkansas Wins in 2020, would require the state to issue licenses to 16 casinos whose owners would be etched into the Arkansas Constitution. Another group, Arkansas Voters First, seeks to create a redistricting commission to redraw congressional and state legislative lines after each U.S. census.

We’ll examine those efforts later if they survive the signature verification process, the ballot title process, and the usual lawsuits seeking to stop them.

The third effort was related to the second. Many of the same people sponsoring Arkansas Voters First are involved with Open Primaries Arkansas, which would make major changes to how Arkansans vote. Instead of voting in either a Republican or Democratic primary, voters would see all the candidates on their ballot – Republicans, Democrats, and others. The top four finishers in each race would advance to the November general election.

There, voters would rank their choices. If no candidate wins a majority, then the last-place candidate would be eliminated and his or her voters’ second-choice candidates would be awarded those votes. That process would continue until one candidate has a majority. It’s also known as an “instant runoff.” Arkansas already has such a system for military and overseas ballots. The process would not apply to the presidential race.

It would address two problems. One is excessive partisanship. Nationwide, the primary elections attract the most partisan voters, while many others stay home. The result is the most conservative Republicans and the most liberal Democrats often advance to the general election. After the elections, the winners are too far apart to govern together effectively. Putting all the candidates on the same ballot in the primary – and then letting all voters rank everybody in November – encourages candidates to appeal to voters outside their base.

The other problem it would address is the “spoiler effect.” That’s when a third party or independent candidate can take votes away from the most similar major party candidate. Voters who prefer the third party candidate thus believe they must vote for either the Democrat or the Republican as the lesser of two evils. With ranked choice voting, they can vote their conscience. The lesser of two evils can be their second choice.

Open Primaries Arkansas spent only a month gathering signatures and piggybacked off Arkansas Voters First. Its shared sponsors include attorney David Couch, who has led past efforts to raise the minimum wage and legalize medical marijuana. In fact, the same paid signature gatherers collected for both efforts.

Organizers delivered the Arkansas Voters First signatures Monday morning and then finished counting and preparing the Open Primaries Arkansas boxes. They planned to deliver them at 3 p.m. The secretary of state’s office was closing at 5. They showed up about 20 minutes before then.

The organizers showed up, that is. The signatures were on a rented truck that, unbeknownst to them, switched drivers because the driver had to attend a class. It was getting later and later. The truck finally appeared, poking along as the driver looked for a place to turn into the parking lot. It was about 4:57 or 4:58 when it finally stopped, and then members of the group raced armloads of boxes into the door.

They barely beat the office closing deadline. If they hadn’t, the Constitution doesn’t say anything about a time stamp, so there would have been a legal argument about when the deadline really was. Midnight, maybe?

There still will be legal arguments about the proposal – there always is – and then if it makes the ballot we’ll have a political debate about it. The status quo will have its defenders, including some who got elected by it.

And then we’ll vote in November – with spoiler effects in effect, for now.