Letters: Trust the vote-by-mail process; Gerrymandered courts would hurt Pennsylvania

Trust the vote-by-mail process

I was happy when I learned from friends and family that Pennsylvania started a vote-by-mail process last year. In 2015 I moved to Oregon, the first state to go to universal vote-by-mail in 1998. Oregon’s system is now well known across the country.

Oregonians of all political persuasions are happy with our system. Ballots are mailed to each registered voter about three weeks before Election Day. It’s free to mail back the completed ballot, or it can be dropped into secure ballot boxes at the courthouse or other locations.

The county election boards are well-equipped to count ballots after 8 p.m. on Election Day, and unless the contest is very close the results are usually known that night or early the next day. Like any voting system, people make mistakes during the process, like failing to sign the outer envelope. Voters whose ballots are challenged are notified and have time to vouch for them.

Over 100 million ballots have been mailed in Oregon since 1998, and there have been only about a dozen allegations of fraud. None would have changed the outcome of any election. Our elections are fair and secure, like courts found out when examining Pennsylvania’s 2020 general election.

Don’t believe politicians who tell you that voting by mail is unfair, not secure, or doesn’t work. They’re lying. Ask yourself what they have to gain by sowing distrust in your elections and questioning the integrity and competence of local election officials.

Gerrymandered courts would hurt Pennsylvania

Unfortunately because of gerrymandering of the state’s legislative districts by the Republican minority, we have ended up with a legislature that is determined to disenfranchise as many citizens as it can as quickly as it can. The Republican Party is continuing to move forward in an attempt to dominate in another callous grab for unchallengeable power. It is sad that the party has to resort to disenfranchisement by: 1) gerrymandering elections districts so that opposing views do not have a chance, 2) attempting to nullify the results of the last election, 3) moving to make voting and registration more difficult rather than more available, and, now 4) proposing to gerrymander the courts.

Instead of picking voters in advance and attempting to disqualify those the party does like, why not expose real ideas to the marketplace of open elections? It is obvious that the party needs to gerrymander the courts so that it can get its way when it unfairly draws new legislative districts this year. The party apparently believes that it is best to have a court it can control when the inevitable challenges are put forth.

After living under the disenfranchisement caused by party though its previous gerrymandering of legislative districts and its recent anti-democratic performance concerning the last election, why should the citizens of Pennsylvania trust the party to change the constitution and draw new court maps? Senator Corman and Representative Benninghoff, proponents of the plot, ought to think about all the citizens rather than continued minority control.

Vaccine clinic a ‘well-oiled machine’

After taking my mother to get her COVID vaccine at Mount Nittany Medical Center, I came out after 20 minutes saying, “Wow!” We arrived before her scheduled time, but they took her right in, going smoothly from one person to another like a well-oiled machine. If not for the 15-minute wait at the end, where seats were provided, we would have been in and out in 5 minutes. The people were all pleasant, caring and professional. There are reports abounding complaining about lack of the vaccine or waiting in long lines for the shot, and my advice is to look to the Mount NIttany Medical Center for a great example of how to do it correctly.

Trump gets away

Four years ago, Donald J. Trump shocked the public by asserting that he could commit murder, in full daylight, in the middle of New York City and get away with it!

On Jan. 6, he put his assertion to the test.

On Jan. 20 he got away with it!

O tempore! O mores!