Election Process Needs Help, Some Readers Say
Westerners still ought to vote, even when results from earlier time zones make it clear the presidential race is over, says Guy Watson of Pullman.
“It is troubling to think that America is beholden to some elitists on the Atlantic coast,” he said. “The voice of the minority must be heard even after the seeming majority has spoken. It is this way that ideas are discussed and new understanding is reached.”
The real problem is the process, said Watson.
“The Electoral College system is simply outdated. This is a time when popular votes can be counted in real time and not the old days when it took weeks to count all the ballots and deliver the results.” Watson stands by proportional representation in legislative bodies. He doesn’t think people would want to vote on every law even if they had time.
But the Electoral College must go.
“Because of that system the media were able to call Bill Clinton a winner while the actual vote tally was showing a 48-44-8 percent race. If the college was done away with then the media would be unable to call a race that close and, thus, make the Western states’ voting dilemma a moot point.”
Pennington Ahlstrand, of Spokane has her own idea for election reform.
“Hawaii and Alaska are five hours behind the East Coast. So close their polls at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, but let them vote for five hours extra the day before - Monday. Then just reduce it for all the other places so we - Washington, Oregon, California - get to vote for three hours on Monday and our Tuesday polls close at 5 p.m.
“This way everyone still gets the same number of open polling hours and the election officially ends at the same moment across the states - 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific time - but we Westerners actually get to post the first election results based on Monday’s results from the precincts.
“Neener neener.”
Accelerate justice
James Barstad, convicted of murder in the double-fatality crash his drunken driving caused last May, gets “not one iota of sympathy” from Byron Potter of Spokane. “After careful consideration I think Barstad should have been executed within 24 hours of the verdict, like the Chinese do. No fooling around like our courts do.
“When they start holding people responsible for their actions, we will start to have a better country.”
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