Unresponsive pols can pay the price on Election Day
I didn’t vote for Sen. David Perdue because I wrote him and asked for his help and he ignored me. No response. No email, no phone call and no letter in response to my request. I guess, just ignore the constituent and maybe they will give up and go away. Note to all elected officials, ignore your constituents and they won’t vote for you. Plus, they will tell their family and friends and they won’t vote for you either. If you don’t want to respond to your constituents, find another line of work.
REV. LEWIS CAZENAVE, OGLETHORPE
Repeal Ga.’s outdated citizen’s arrest law
The Feb. 16th news article, “Kemp unveils overhaul of ‘ripe for abuse’ citizen’s arrest law,” discussed Gov. Kemp’s proposal to overhaul Georgia’s citizen’s arrest laws. While it is fantastic that this move has bipartisan support, it is crucial that citizen’s arrest be repealed completely, in all forms. This law, which has been in place in Georgia since 1863, is rooted in racism. Historically, it has been used to justify the lynching of Black people, such as in 1912 in Hamilton, and in 1946 in Walton County. It continues to allow untrained civilians to commit violence against people of color. Citizen’s arrest is outdated today, given the speed of police and emergency service response time. It makes all Georgians less safe, and should be eradicated entirely.
TILLY HARRINGTON, ROSWELL
Raising minimum wage carries unintended consequences
Under current law, an 50% increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour would produce roughly a 15% net pay increase for a full-time working Georgia mother with a 15-year-old child currently making $10 per hour, assuming she qualifies for Obamacare and her son qualifies for Medicaid (which both would if she didn’t receive coverage through her job).
This is so, due to the federal entitlements and tax regime designed to increase the standard of living of lower-income households. Entitlements include Obamacare, a child tax credit, the earned income credit and Obamacare premium credits. At $10/hour, she and her son would be entitled to several other entitlements, including LIHEAP (the low-income home energy assistance program), a free cell phone and monthly usage, SNAP benefits (i.e. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as food stamps), and free school breakfasts and lunches.
At $15 an hour, these benefits would be lost or reduced.
ALLEN BUCKLEY, ATLANTA
Vote-restricting bill a ‘solution’ in search of a problem
The headline “Sunday voting restored in elections bill” (Metro, Feb. 25) may seem like progress toward addressing concerns of voter suppression, but it pales to the thinly disguised tactics that remain.
The most draconian is the reduction of the number of drop boxes for absentee ballots. Each county would be required to offer at least one drop box, but no more than one per 200,000 registered voters. In Fulton County, that’s just four drop boxes.
And requiring new precincts to open if waits exceed an hour at voting sites with more than 2,000 registered voters, does anyone honestly believe an additional precinct can be up and running in anything approaching a timely manner? Or successfully alerting voters of additional locations?
Other than the elections for President and U.S. Senate, Republicans pretty much won the same number of elections as before. So why the desire to change election laws that Republicans passed 15 years ago that expanded voting opportunities?
This bill is a solution looking for a problem.
BOB HUDSON, ATLANTA
