Letters: Another way to steal an election; Casinos feed off addiction

Another way to steal an election

Referring to the letter “Much at stake with AG races” by Suzanne Colvin, appearing in CDT on May 12, a Trump-supporting Secretary of State, as well as a Trump-loyalist Attorney General, could effectively steal an election.

In 2020, Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough additional votes to have him declared the winner in Georgia. It was only due to the honorable character of Mr. Raffensperger that Trump’s attempt to cheat did not succeed. Given a less-principled Secretary of State, a state’s voting outcome might be reversed by the stroke of a pen, without the court action described by Ms. Colvin.

The Colvin letter cites Michigan as an example of where the Attorney General in 2024, if Matt DePerno is elected, could easily fulfill the Republican game plan. In the same state, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State, Kristina Karamo, is equally Trumpian. Would Ms. Karamo, as Michigan’s Secretary of State, possess the same integrity as that shown by Mr. Raffensperger in Georgia in 2020?

Fortunately, both the current Attorney General and the current Secretary of State in Michigan are Democrats, and both are seeking reelection. Hopefully the voters in Michigan will block the diabolical Republican “steal the election” plan by reelecting these incumbents this November.

A 1966 movie with Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn, called “How to Steal a Million,” was a delightful romantic comedy. The unfolding “How to Steal an Election” movie will be a horror film.

Casinos feed off addiction

Casino owners gain a veneer of respectability by providing food and entertainment to the majority of their customers who are casual gamblers, but they make the bulk of their money by addicting a small portion of the community to gambling and then fleecing those people for everything that they have. Without gambling addicts, most casinos would be unprofitable.

Modern casinos work hard to keep gambling addicts at their gaming machines until they run out of money. They have no windows or clocks to prevent people from realizing how long they have been gambling. The gaming machines are arranged like a maze to make it difficult for people to leave. The games themselves use lights and sounds to create the impression that the casino is full of people who are winning even if the casino is empty. Casinos also often give away free alcohol to impair addicts’ judgment about how much money they can afford to lose.

Skills games and the lottery do not control the gambling environment in these ways, and few people have lost their home or their life’s savings playing these types of games – however, many people who gamble at casinos have lost both. Opposing a new casino in our community is therefore a more urgent priority.

Please send your opposition to the proposed Nittany Mall casino to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board at boardclerk@pa.gov, sign the online petition opposing the casino at www.ipetitions.com/petition/saynocasino, and visit SayNoCasino.org for more information about further actions that you can take.