Sadly The Herald chose to print Nov. 8 what I believe to be a letter writer's obviously uninformed voting opinions, particularly when facts are so readily available.
Vote-by-mail rules were developed jointly by state legislators, county auditors and interested citizens, producing a system that is one of the best in the nation. Any interested citizen can become a part of the process as a trained election observer.
The writer claims:
Ballots can be stolen out of rural mail boxes. This is a federal offense. To be used, signatures must match. Meanwhile the victims will use replacement ballots. Duplicates will be detected.
Voting is complicated (supported by an hypothetical retirement community test). Retirement community residents handle the ballots well. Mail voting actually increases retirement community participation.
Signatures are not checked. False. All are checked. Mismatches are returned to the voter for verification. Unverified ballots are not processed.
Many ballots are not counted. False. All legible, on-time ballots with valid signatures are counted. Despite media impatience, only the results available at certification (several weeks after the election) are official.
Drop boxes are easily vandalized. False. They are seriously made and well fastened down. Such vandalism is a state and federal offense.
From one of your volunteer citizen elections observers.
Stephen K. Schuck
Bellingham
