GOP slate of electors set to cast state votes

Six longtime Republican activists will cast Arkansas’ six electoral votes at the state Capitol on Monday, and all have agreed to back President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

The party’s state committee chose its slate of electors in the summer.

“We generally select people who are unquestionably Republican [and] unquestionably support our nominee,” said Doyle Webb, one of this year’s electors and a former state party chairman.

Trump, with 760,647 votes, defeated Democrat Joe Biden in Arkansas. The president-elect received 423,932 votes, according to the final, certified totals.

Under Arkansas law, the Republican Party’s slate was awarded all electoral votes.

Nationally, Biden was certified the winner in enough states and districts to receive 306 electoral votes. Trump received 232 electoral votes.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected efforts by Republican officials to challenge the election results in four states that Trump lost: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.

Unlike some states, Arkansas has no law requiring electors to back their party’s candidate.

“That’s the reason we are always careful about who we select,” Webb said. “We’ve never had an issue with an elector not voting for the nominee of the party.”

In addition to the former party chairman, this year’s group initially included former Baxter County Republican Party Chairman Rod Soubers of Mountain Home, Little Rock pastor Iverson Jackson, Sebastian County Clerk Sharon Brooks, congressional district director J.D. McGehee and former U.S. Rep. Ed Bethune.

On Dec. 3, Gov. Asa Hutchinson completed “Certificates of Ascertainment” listing the names of the Arkansans who had been “duly elected and qualified.”

Bearing the state seal, the certificates, which were signed by Hutchinson and Secretary of State John Thurston, summoned the electors to appear Monday in the Old Supreme Court Chamber.

Ultimately, there were last-minute changes in the lineup.

Because of covid-19 concerns, Bethune, who turns 85 on Saturday, withdrew from the proceedings. McGehee also canceled.

Two alternates, Washington County’s County Judge Joseph Wood and Republican Party of Arkansas Deputy General Counsel George Ritter, will take their places, party officials said.

Electors in other states will also gather Monday at capitals across the country.

Their votes will be tallied on Jan. 6 during a joint session of Congress.

Under Arkansas law, electors aren’t paid for their efforts, though they can be reimbursed for “reasonable and necessary expenses.”

Before they begin their work, the electors will complete a few formalities.

“You come in, and you get sworn in. You get to bring your special Bible, whatever Bible you want to use [for the oath],” said Republican Party of Arkansas Chairwoman Jonelle Fulmer, who served as an elector four years ago.

Participating in the ceremony is a rare privilege, she said.

“It’s one of the greatest honors that anyone who loves our country and loves our process could ever be given,” she said.

The electors complete six Certificates of Vote, with each of them recording their votes six separate times. Each certificate is attached to one of the governor’s Certificates of Ascertainment, according to a guide prepared by the National Archives and Records Administration.

After the electors have signed their names, they “seal and certify the electoral votes” and promptly dispatch them.

Under federal law, one set will be sent by registered mail to the president of the Senate, Pence, in “the seat of government” — also known as Washington, D.C.

Two will be forwarded to the Arkansas secretary of state’s office.

Two will be dispatched to the archivist of the United States in Washington.

The last will be entrusted to the chief judge for the federal district court in Little Rock.

The secretary of state makes one of the copies available for public inspection and sets the other aside, in case the Senate president needs it.

Similarly, the archivist makes one available to the public while holding onto the other, subject to the order of the Senate president.

If the paperwork fails to reach the right officials in Washington, then there are thus plenty of backups.

One of the Arkansas electors is already familiar with the agency that will safeguard certificates in the coming days. Soubers, a former archivist and historian with the National Archives and Records Administration, worked at the Eisenhower and Reagan presidential libraries before retiring and moving to the Natural State.

Instead of safeguarding historic documents, he’ll be helping to create them this time.

Soubers, 73, doesn’t anticipate any surprises.

“All six of us are, I think, strongly committed to voting for the Republican nominee,” he said. “[Trump] carried Arkansas, as you know, in a landslide.”