Letters: Poll workers know realities of election; Missed chance to defend democracy

Poll workers know realities of election

I am a veteran poll worker. Senator Corman and the Republican senators are the ones who have muddied the waters around the elections, by trying to legitimize President Trump’s baseless and insulting claims of “massive voter fraud” and “questionable” mail-in ballots. Anyone who questions the fairness and accuracy of the elections (in Pennsylvania at the very least) should sign up to work the polls and witness the process first hand. It is a long day, at minimum pay, but it will dispel any notion of a “rigged” election. Republican elected officials should be extremely thankful to the voters of the United States, in that they made a concerted effort to separate them from the president. The Republican party made out fabulously in the last election, while a large portion of the Republican voters voted for Joe Biden, but split their tickets to vote for “down ticket” Republicans. At the polling station I worked, approximately 75% of the in-person voters were registered Republicans, the totals at the end of the night showed and almost 50-50 split between Biden and Trump. Now that Republicans are showing themselves to be President Trump’s lackeys, maybe we should redo the elections and see how that 25% feels about them now?

Missed chance to defend democracy

A Confederate flag was carried into the United States Capitol on Wednesday by violent rioters attempting a coup.

Let that sink in. A sign of traitors, slave owners and secessionists was carried into the United States Capitol: a place it never reached even during the darkest days of the Civil War. Americans were forced to watch as a mob threatened our democracy. Our Republic will never be the same after the damage that has been wrought.

Don Lemon said that the public will remember the people that made this happen. In Centre County, we have three of them: Sen. Jake Corman, Rep. Kerry Benninghoff and Rep. Stephanie Borowicz. Through systematically undermining our democracy, through repeating false claims of voter fraud, and through seeking to have our commonwealth’s electoral votes overturned, they have done incalculable harm to our nation, to Pennsylvania, and to their constituents.

They had a chance to defend democracy. Instead, they chose loyalty to Donald Trump, and they helped stoke the mob that stormed our Capitol carrying the flag of slave owners Pennsylvanians fought to defeat. They will have to live with that legacy for the rest of their careers, and voters should remember it well in 2022.

Support candidates who commit to police department

I am a lifetime Democrat living in Boalsburg and must call to action all State College Borough residents of the upcoming election for mayor and council seats. Harris Township is supported by the State College Police Department, but we cannot vote in Borough elections — please save us. There is a group whose existence is founded on a gross distortion of the truth. The 3/20 Coalition, against all evidence, continues to call the responding officers of the Osagie Osaze tragedy murderers and now the entire SCPD. Anyone who supports this group is directly supporting a message that defames our police department. One member said at a council meeting; “People of color in State College are being policed by a known killer and two accomplices and this is a statement of fact.” He is destroying trust for our most vulnerable, compromising their comfort in approaching the police for help.

We enjoy one of the finest police departments anywhere. Crime continues to decline in our community. Many communities that defunded their police have endured skyrocketing crime. This group wants to defund ours by $2 million. I am asking for all Democrats and Republicans to rise up. Please protect our community and members in the police department by making the commitment to back candidates who will not support arbitrary change influenced by a group spewing propaganda. Brave council members recently kept this insanity from happening by amending a budget that called for defunding. This cannot be overturned. Please vote!

Stormwater fee would put ‘unnecessary strain’ on all

Ferguson Township is currently proposing a stormwater fee. An annual fee that will be imposed on all property owners within the township, big and small. A township that currently has the highest earned income tax and real estate transfer tax rates in the region, decided it needs even more money. A flexible rate that is uncapped and can be increased year to year with a simple resolution. The township board has also suggested a 100% tax increase if they can’t get this proposal approved. Any new fees or increase to taxes will make Ferguson Township even less affordable and put unnecessary strain on our already struggling farm community, churches, nonprofits and all residents on fixed incomes. This proposal is a dreadful idea during any year, but to introduce this during a pandemic is just unacceptable. Not only are some people suffering even more financially, but the public is not afforded the opportunity to attend any meetings in person. A complete disadvantage to those without access to internet, a computer or those just not comfortable with participating in a Zoom meeting. Ferguson Township property owners are entitled to better. If this proposal passes, it will become a horrid, unruly beast that devours even more of property owner’s hard-earned money. Instead, this proposal needs to be voted down!

Corman’s broken promise

Senator Jake Corman has misled Pennsylvania voters by reneging on his promise to stay out of the presidential election results. He promised in October that the Assembly would have no involvement in deciding the outcome of this election. But his signature on a letter to Republican Congressional leaders requesting a last-minute delay in the tabulation of the Electoral College results is a clear example of collaboration with the failed Trump campaign to undermine an election certified as legal by the courts. Mr. Corman’s explanation is that he is “just trying to get to the bottom” of the election. His move is part of a campaign to manipulate our election system. In Pennsylvania the goal is to gerrymander the Pennsylvania Supreme Court elections and abolish the no-excuse mail ballot system.

The excuses he offered in the CDT interview on Jan. 7 are laughable. He no longer deserves to represent us in Harrisburg.

No longer just playing with fire

I am horrified that our Congressman Glenn Thompson, at 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning, continued to follow President Trump’s lead in casting unfounded doubt on Pennsylvania’s votes for the presidential election, not 12 hours after a mob rioted in the U.S. Capitol. After one of the darkest days in our democracy in a long time, Thompson doubled down in the dead of night. A woman died because of these conspiracy theories. He and his Republican colleague Fred Keller — and those Pennsylvania state Senators who have encouraged Trump, and have now tried to apply his antics in refusing to seat Dem. Sen. Jim Brewster — are no longer just playing with fire. They’re sacrificing the democracy that also elected them for a failed demagogue’s doomed ambitions.

Centre County GOP must answer for trip

I have watched appalled at the horrifying scene of the mob laying waste to our nation’s Capitol. These rioters did not come there just because. They were egged on by false claims of vote fraud – claims that over 60 judges of every political stripe found without merit.

The Centre County Republican Committee recruited local people and sent them in buses to join.

They should be prosecuted criminally for it. Because they knew, after all the rhetoric being spewed on by Trump enablers, Jake Corman and Kerry Benninghoff, that they would not protest peacefully.

This was a dark day for our country. Thankfully our institutions held firm. But now there must be a statement that such incitements to riot will not be tolerated.