Going to paper ballots pushes fear, not truth

As we all know, the 2020 election was not stolen from Trump. He lost fair and square. Yet, since that time, the MAGA Republicans keep squealing that there is something wrong with the voting process in America. Now, there is a ballot initiative being started by a group that calls itself Restore Election Integrity Arkansas to go back to paper ballots because, they say, you can’t trust voting machines.

If it seems to some that this is old news, that’s because it is. We’ve been hearing this since 2020. Tucker Carlson lost his job at Fox News because he kept pointing the finger at Dominion’s voting machines despite them proving over and over that their machines were accurate and reliable. They sued Fox and won, and Carlson was booted off the network.

So, what is the point of this new group seeking a ballot initiative that would change the wording in the Arkansas constitution to indicate only paper ballots be used? The same old MAGA Republican technique of spreading doubt and fear. Make the public think there is something wrong with voting machines by having a group titled Restore Election Integrity Arkansas and go to paper ballots (where nothing can go wrong, right?).

The secretary of state, John Thurston, in response to the ballot initiative, said there is nothing wrong with the voting machines in Arkansas and that in every election he has been in charge of there has been no proof that the election results were thrown off by voting machines. Now, this is the guy that officially certifies the election results. So, the group REIA has got an uphill battle to fight (if an imaginary battle can be called such).

Not only that, but because the Republicans did not like ballot initiatives that some progressives were coming up with in the past, they made it harder to get ballot initiatives approved by passing a law that required more signatures than were previously needed. In 2024, they will need to get 90,704 signatures to get the job done. Seems like a lot, but who knows, with a catchy title like Restore Election Integrity Arkansas, maybe they can fool that many Arkansans to sign because fear is always more appealing than the truth.

STEVEN TRULOCK Fayetteville