If Dr. Woody Myers is elected governor, there will be a “sanction” for not wearing a face mask. He likened not wearing one to smoking wherever you please or refusing to put on a seat belt or to put your child in a car seat.

Myers, the Democratic candidate for governor, has been critical of Gov. Eric Holcomb, the Republican incumbent. for not being tough enough on people who do not wear masks. Myers is the former state health commissioner.

“We do not have a face mask mandate. What we have in Indiana is a face mask suggestion,” said Myers in an interview Friday night, following his comments on the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “If it were a mandate, there would be a stick along with the carrot.”

Myers made it clear when asked about masks, that he believes people who do not wear them in public should be punished. Holcomb’s mandate has no such punishment.

“Yes, there should be a sanction if you don’t do it. That doesn’t mean that we want to put everybody in jail that doesn’t understand the importance of wearing a face mask.”

Myers did not talk about a specific penalty.

He was asked about whether he minded that people who were no longer saying they were voting for Holcomb, were saying they would vote instead for Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater. That information is according to a poll commissioned by IndyPolitics.

Myers said he was grateful for the poll, which indicated Holcomb has lost nearly ten points since the last poll was taken, but that it is just one poll.

“Ten or fifteen years ago, everybody who smoked felt they could light up a cigarette wherever they were, wherever they wanted, and it took a sanction to say no, you can’t do that. And, now nobody does that,” he said.

“It’s gonna require that we have a sanction and we’re gonna encourage people to do the right thing.”