Letters: The next move with mail-in voting?; Conservatives will persevere

The next move with mail-in voting?

The Republican voter suppression plan is alive and well.

In 2019 the Pennsylvania legislature passed Act 77, which allowed voters to request no-excuse mail-in ballots. The bill enjoyed unanimous support from Senate Republicans. Then-Majority Leader Jake Corman called it “the most historic reform bill we’ve done.”

Successful legislation, right? Well, apparently too successful for Corman and his fellow vote-suppressing Republican friends. You see, Act 77 encouraged voting, made it easier and safer to vote, with the result that more Pennsylvania residents than ever did so last November. But Republicans just can’t stand anything that encourages voting.

So, now the House State Government Committee is holding 14 hearings to “investigate” last November’s voting, including issues with our new mail-in voting, and the Senate will do the same. While it would be simple to tweak and smooth out the rough edges of the first year of Act 77, these Republican-led “truth squads” will almost certainly come up with transparently bogus reasons to cut back, curtail, make more difficult, or altogether eliminate open mail-in voting. Wait for it.

Mail-in voting works in several states including Oregon, Colorado, Washington and others. It’s popular with voters and politicians of both parties, encourages participation, there’s zero fraud ... and it costs less. Just Google mail-in voting for Oregon or Colorado to find out more.

Only those who wish to suppress voting while also wasting taxpayer dollars would be against expanded mail-in voting. Unfortunately, this is the ultimate game plan for Corman, Kerry Benninghoff, and their Republican friends in Harrisburg.

Conservatives will persevere

We conservatives will not be silenced, as Kay Machi stated on Jan. 24, even though the Democrats, Big Tech companies and mainstream media have silenced President Trump. President Biden spoke of promoting unity in his inaugural address. Now he is issuing more executive orders without input from conservatives. Many of these negate all the good progress that President Trump accomplished. Biden has put thousands of people out of work by stopping Keystone Pipeline. Plus he is shutting down the oil and gas industry, he says to promote climate change. Does he know that China is the world’s largest producer of wind turbines and solar panels? Does he know that his actions may make us dependent on China? Does he know that China wants to be the No. 1 world power and he is just playing into their hands? Trump stood up to China. He made us energy independent.

We conservatives love this country and do not want to see it destroyed by power hungry politicians who do not comprehend what made this country great. We need more statesman and fewer politicians. Nancy Pelosi chose to halt the second stimulus package for political reasons only, not to help the people she was elected to represent. Our executive branch in Pennsylvania changed the voting rules before the recent election, which is not their purview to do, which our Congressmen and state leaders understood.

We will persevere in presenting our side, which is our First Amendment right in spite of the efforts to quiet us.

Change in police departments

Defund is the wrong word.

It gives the wrong message. It does not mean that we should eliminate police departments. Some funds that now hire regular cops should be diverted to replace some of those positions with mental health positions. Regular cops aren’t trained to handle mental health or children. Yes, the new positions must be safe while doing their work. Whether they carry guns or not is questionable, but they must be safe until they can deescalate situations. How do you take care of a naked 24-year-old in a cold street in the grip of mental anguish and paranoia? You don’t shoot them or asphyxiate them. The job is to care for that person. Yes, eject racist xenophobes never again to work in any position of life and death authority over another person anywhere.

Defund is the wrong word.