Let the people decide? Ha!

Acanvasser cannot be expected to circulate his petitions by paper airplane. Arkansas citizens seeking to exercise their constitutional right to make their own laws cannot possibly execute the requisite signature-seeking on petitions amid a viral epidemic with the government telling them to keep a distance of 6 feet.

That is simple common sense. It also provides the cause of action in a federal court lawsuit filed in Fayetteville last week by Arkansas Voters First.

That is the new organization seeking to qualify for the November general election ballot an initiated constitutional amendment to move authority for congressional and legislative redistricting based on this year’s census from self-serving elected politicians to an independent commission.

If denied the opportunity to gather the signatures, or impaired so severely in that effort by virus-forced and government-imposed restrictions that the July 3 deadline for submitting signatures could not reasonably be met, then there would no remedy for the aggrieved for a decade.

The legislative and congressional districts that the Legislature, governor, attorney general and secretary of state would draw next year would apply for that duration, until the 2030 Census.

So the lawsuit has a certain compelling nature.

If free expression, free assembly and due process are rights, as of course they are, then special relief seems commanded.

The lawsuit explains that the group got started circulating petitions a mere week before the state began imposing restrictions that rendered canvassing impossible.

The typical way to get mass signatures is to take advantage of large event gatherings. But those are currently not permitted.

The lawsuit asks the court to waive statutory requirements that cannot be met in such a restricted period of pandemic, such as that canvassers must physically collect and personally witness written signatures and that the canvassers must then get their petitions stamped by a notary public.

Please understand that the suit does not seek permanent changes in the prescribed petition process. It seeks one-time emergency relief because of what one hopes and prays will be a one-time urgency.

The plaintiffs are a woman with the League of Women Voters saying she wants to canvass for the proposal but cannot, a man with a pre-existing condition who wants to sign but dares not, and a woman who wants to sign but lives in a retirement village that restricts access to the senior residents because of the special threat the virus poses to older people.

What the suit specifically seeks is permission to gather and submit electronic signatures. And it suggests that the court declare that only 6% of the state’s last gubernatorial race turnout, or 53,492 signatures, be required, rather than 10%, meaning 89,151.

It also proposes, owing to the unavoidable delay thus far, that the submission deadline be moved back two months to Sept. 3.

The suit says the voters hardly would be undercut or threatened by those relaxed restrictions, considering that whether the proposal goes on to the state Constitution depends entirely on what all the voters say in November.

In other words: Requiring fewer signatures to get the proposal on the ballot in a special virus circumstance would have no bearing on whether a majority of the voters agreed with the proposal in a November election likely to draw a massive turnout, owing to the presidential race.

So you might wonder at this point whether and why anyone might oppose such a simple one-time relaxing of rules on the basis of such a compelling need arising from such an extraordinary circumstance.

So, I will tell you: Arkansas Republicans oppose this lawsuit.

They want to draw their own self-perpetuating districts next year the way Arkansas Democrats drew their own self-perpetuating districts for decades without anybody trying to take away their authority with a constitutional amendment.

And whose fault was that? Republicans only had the last century to propose this particular constitutional reform.

Doyle Webb, the state GOP chairman, told this newspaper that nobody forced the people pushing this amendment to wait until a week before the virus hit to start circulating petitions. And he said we must protect the integrity of our democracy from whatever funny business might arise from electronic signatures.

This Republican position is consistent with the party’s opposition to voting by mail or with a no-excuse absentee process.

When it comes to democratic exercises, Republicans, in every case, will advocate restricting people rather than offering them convenience.

They do not wish to make it easier for you to get this self-empowering reform on the ballot to rein in self-perpetuating powers for politicians. That is because they fear you will vote for it.

Republicans invariably will contend that the people cannot be democratically empowered because they are simply not to be trusted.

Republicans believe we must empower electors to choose the people’s presidents. Now they believe we must empower a virus to befoul the people’s petition power.