A fear unfounded
A recent letter writer, Jeff Braff, proposes a flaw in the election system based on the difficulty in comparing signatures on electronic poll books vs. the signature made at the time of voting. I agree that many signatures do not look similar. However, to suggest potential voter fraud is ludicrous.
I have been an elected poll worker, including a judge of elections in Delaware County, for more than a decade. I work in a polling place with four precincts servicing about 4,000 registered voters.
If people were coming in to vote fraudulently, they would have to claim to be someone else. For the electronic poll book to accept their claim, they would have had to get to the polling place before the actual voter, as once the voter is accepted by the electronic poll book, it won’t accept it again for the same election. On the other hand, if someone fraudulently voted and the actual voter comes in later, we would recognize the issue immediately, as the true voter would assure us they had not voted, which would cause a major investigation.
If this were an ongoing problem in the polls, we would know. In helping my neighbors vote for more than 10 years, with thousands of votes cast, I have never had a voter denied voting due to a previous vote — never.
Our voting system is the safest, most secure, honest system in the world. Republican thoughts to the contrary are simply nonsense, and any attempts to make voting more secure are, in fact, simply attempts to deny the vote to groups that commonly don’t vote Republican.
Michael Mayer, Wallingford
Not-so-distant future
If the Trump administration continues unchecked, this is what we have to look forward to: smog and heavy pollution over our cities, large concentration camps appearing all over the country. Everyone will have a friend, family member, or acquaintance who disappears into the night. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will spread out everywhere and do whatever they want. The middle class will all but disappear, and we will see a lot more poverty. We will all be carrying “papers” that can be randomly checked by our secret police at any time. The list goes on and on. This cannot be allowed to happen. Let’s make sure it doesn’t.
Catherine Freimiller, Philadelphia
Ballots, not burdens
I just spent $212.55 on a passport — not to travel, but in case I need it to keep voting.
If the SAVE America Act becomes law, that passport could become the price of participation. When exercising a constitutional right requires a document costing over $200, that looks like a poll tax. The 24th Amendment was meant to end that.
Supporters point to voter fraud. Yet, even the Heritage Foundation’s own database documents roughly 1,400 proven cases nationwide over decades. Out of billions of ballots cast, that’s about 0.0001% — not a crisis, a rounding error.
Still, U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick support measures built around this “threat.”
When participation rises, some politicians lose. Making voting harder before midterms doesn’t protect elections — it protects incumbents who fear the electorate.
Election integrity matters. But adding cost and bureaucracy to address 0.0001% looks less like security and more like strategy. Voting is a right — not a purchase.
Sara Emerle, Albrightsville
Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.
