Today's letters to the editor: These websites will inform you before you vote in election
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Letters to the editor present the opinions of readers on news stories and other pieces published by The Sun.
Get informed and vote
For more than 100 years, the League of Women Voters has provided non-partisan information to the public. The local League of Alachua County is providing information to you for the current election.
Our website, my.lwv.org/florida/alachua, has a trove of information to prepare you to vote by Election Day, Nov. 8. On the home page, click on the gold bar where you will find voter guides, recordings of forums and links for fact checking. Recordings include local candidates as well as state and federal candidates, such as a debate between Danielle Hawk and Kat Cammack, who are running for the District 3 U.S. House seat.
You will also see a link for VOTE411. Enter your address and party affiliation and be directed to your specific ballot choices. Candidates’ platform information may be entered. Information about the Wild Spaces and Public Places/infrastructure initiative and the county charter amendment regarding districts is available.
The League of Women Voters of Alachua County encourages you to be informed and vote!
Janice Garry, president, League of Women Voters of Alachua County
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Misleading fear-mongering
An independent voter, I seek facts. Chuck Clemons’ attempts to get voters who don’t is backfiring. Recent mailers maligning his competitor, attorney Brandon Peters of Williston, for Florida House District 22 reveal Clemons’ desperation. Unlike Clemons, Peters, with substantial credentials and district support, campaigns on issues, not misinformation.
Clemons holds Joe Biden and Peters responsible for inflation and rising home prices. Inflation is global, caused in part by a booming economy, the COVID pandemic and supply chain issues, not Biden/Peters. The booming economy created jobs, higher wages and more home buyers, thereby reducing supply and raising home prices.
Clemons blames Biden/Peters for "rising taxes." But virtually all Republicans voted against raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans who paid little to none. And "men competing in girls' sports?” That hogwash illustrates Clemons' ignorance of the fundamental issue: equality and better education for all.
Brandon Peters campaigns about issues, not misleading fear-mongering. Lest we forget, Clemons also promulgated an unnecessary, costly toll road through the middle of his district, an idea originated by his big business donors and friends in road construction.
It's time for change. Brandon Peters is the only candidate in that race that represents all of us.
Kathryn Taubert, Gainesville
Immigrants needed
In the latest issue of Time magazine, with multiple pictures of the devastation from Hurricane Ian, the editor comments on an immigrant named Johnny Aburto. Aburto has for several years worked to repair, rebuild and redo broken American cities after they're damaged by storms, such as New Orleans after Katrina in 2005 and Lake Charles after Laura in 2020.
In September, our governor, Ron DeSantis, loaded up a bus of immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, where the wealthy live and they provided them with shelter and food. Men like Johnny are needed in Fort Myers and elsewhere. In Florida, we are short of workers for our farms and elsewhere.
Immigrants are a large percentage of Americans. My own educated parents came from the Netherlands in 1925, my husband's from England. I am grateful they did.
Barbara Collett, Gainesville
Democracy threatened
The 10th session of the Jan. 6 committee was riveting. There was even more information that the committee members had uncovered.
All of this information demonstrated how the former president and his influence over his minions almost destroyed our democracy. The former president tried to take over and continue in power and eliminate all law and justice and basically throw our Constitution in the dirt.
The Jan. 6 committee members wants their evidence to be disseminated because they greatly fear that something like this could happen again. However, I believe it will happen again and in the near future.
When one considers all of the restrictions on voting which are now in place in many states thanks to many Republican governors, and the many Republicans running for office who are election deniers, and the many supporters of the former president who strongly believe his lies and misinformation, and the violence being perpetrated against election workers … then yes, I believe our country is going to fold.
This great experiment in democracy which was created by our Founding Fathers is not going to survive the outright hate and division in our country which was fomented by the former president.
Joyce Dewsbury, Gainesville
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Letters on voter websites, Chuck Clemons mailers, immigrants, more
