Letters to the Editor: The GOP won't allow election security bills. Now, it opposes mail-in ballots?

Los Angeles Times Opinion
·2 min read
SAN FRANCISCO – JANUARY 24: A stack of vote–by–mail ballots sit in a box after being sorted at the San Francisco Department of Elections January 24, 2008 in San Francisco, California. Absentee balloting in California has become extremely popular in the past few election cycles with an estimated 3.7 million California voters casting absentee ballots in the 2006 general election, close to 42% of the total vote. California voters have been casting their ballots by mail for this years primary election since early January. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A stack of vote-by-mail ballots at the San Francisco Department of Elections in 2008. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images )

To the editor: If the president and his sycophants in Congress were so concerned about fair elections and voter fraud, they would have supported bills requiring paper backups of electronic voting machines. ("Republicans would rather undermine California's elections than honorably take their lumps," editorial, May 28)

Mail-in ballots have been a Republican staple for years. Now, with the real possibility of interference in our election by outside influencers trying to hack our voting machines, paper ballots are arguably the safest method of voting. Thus, mail-in ballots are more fraud-resistant than electronic voting machines that have no paper backup.

Furthermore, the motivation for universal mail-in ballots is the danger to voters' health and safety caused by exposure to the coronavirus at the voting booth, which the Republicans do not seem to be concerned about.

Richard Z. Fond, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: Your editorial does not mention ballot harvesting.

Basically, sending ballots out to everyone opens the door to massive fraud and even possible elder abuse. Either side can hire volunteers to go out and find seniors or others who do not normally vote in an election. Those volunteers can coerce seniors and others into voting for their party.

If someone cannot get to the polls to vote, he or she can ask for a mail-in ballot. My wife and I do it, and so does President Trump. But the risk of fraud is too high with 100% mail-in ballots.

Why should we even take a chance with something that might destroy our republic?

Doug McDermott, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Trump's determination to stop voting by mail affects me personally. Does he not realize he will lose many votes from the disabled and the elderly who are unable to get to the polls?

Being over 90 years old, I have been voting by mail for the past few years. Evidently Trump does not care much about the elderly and disabled.

Audrey Stepp, Riverside