Readers write

PHIL SKINNER / PSKINNER@AJC.COM

PHIL SKINNER / PSKINNER@AJC.COM

Election safeguards protect even appearance of wrongdoing

Recently a letter commented on the giving of water to voters in line “No water provision remains most outrageous part of election law,” Readers Write, Sept. 14. What has happened to us as citizens of the freest country in the world? What has happened to personal responsibility? Have so many just become wimps waiting on someone else to care for us?

Never in my lifetime has voting been easier. Practically every possible provision has been made to make voting easy.

However, there must be safeguards to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing. Why so? Because there are eyes always looking to make a case against someone or something and others doing wrong if given the opportunity.

Think about these poll workers working at least a 14-hour day so our system can work. Eat before you go, take a snack, and carry a bottle of water with you. Water usually is found on-site as well.

The voting line is not an occasion for tailgating. It is a place to exercise our freedom and opportunity.

RALPH D. EDWARDS, LILBURN

Republican voting laws changing society for the worse

In the 1960s, a Democratic president and Congress gave us the Voting Right Act.

It has expired, and Republicans tell us it is no longer needed. I’m not sure how much help the Voting Rights Act would be in the era of “voting security laws” passed in most Republican-controlled states.

Oh, you can register, and you can vote, but given any hint or perhaps even a rumor of impropriety, the results of the election can be overturned.

Republicans are changing our society for the worse, majority or not. It’s a closed-loop system. They give the party faithful an anti-abortion, anti-gay and pro-gun agenda. The party faithful gives the wealthy donor class low taxes that will not fund the government.

As bad as all this Republican foolishness is, think how much worse it would be if they actually had the majority, but then again, why should they bother?

BOB LOWTHER, DALLAS