How to shift blame

By going after the real public servants

SOME SAGE advice for lawyers seems to have been adopted by Arkansas’ secretary of state: When the facts are on your side, pound away at the facts. When the law is on your side, pound away at the law. But when neither facts nor law can justify your stand, pound the table. Which is the policy the Hon. Mark Martin has been following this summer. As if volume were an acceptable substitute for reason. The good ship U.S.S. Arkansas seems to have a loose cannon rolling around the deck, and its name is Mark Martin.

Just a couple of months ago, the secretary’s office sent a letter to all the state’s county clerks saying there were 7,730 registered voters in Arkansas who’d been convicted of felonies. And therefore shouldn’t be able to vote. Now that the dubious data the secretary of state relied on has been questioned, all he’s done is send out another letter saying county clerks should do their own investigations before actually removing anybody from the voting rolls, doncha know.

To quote one of the many put-upon county clerks across the state—Larry Crane in Pulaski County: “Yes, this letter is stronger than the one before. Well, excuse me, it’s been a month and a half since they did it. You have clerks who have sent letters out to people—to felons, to non-felons. You have clerks who have devoted many, many, many hours to working through this process. I’m sorry, that is not a good response.”

One of Mr. Martin’s deputies claims the secretary of state’s office has no legal authority to clean up the state’s voter-registration rolls, so “we need each [county] clerk to notify us in writing as soon as possible if you wish to arrange for the rollback of felon removals.”

Pulaski County’s Larry Crane has a simpler solution to this problem of the secretary of state’s own making: Just go back and start all over. Because, as Mr. Crane has explained in the most direct language, “there is nothing in the constitution that forces the secretary of state to give out inaccurate data, flawed data, data that shows that people totally innocent of anything are felons.” And he adds: “I am confident that we will have at least 400 hours and maybe 500 employee hours to clean up the mess that Mark Martin and his staff laid at our feet. I can’t get anything back for that.” And in the end, one suspects, the public will be left with the bill.