Regarding the article on Washington state all mail voting, reprinted from The Olympian. Assumptions are made in this article, such as the opening paragraph referring to it as a “statewide system that's highly popular among Washington state voters,” and even the headline, calling this idea of banning all mail voting statewide as “Trump's latest threat.”
No.
All mail-in voting has been forced upon Washington state voters for decades. That doesn't mean it's popular with everyone. Has anyone else noticed the Democrats have won virtually every state race here since mail-in voting became our only choice?
And the headline: The threat brought on by Trump and his administration is only worrisome to cheaters and those who choose to manipulate elections in Washington state.
Those of us who value fair elections want the mail-in ballots of course to be available to those who cannot physically make it to any polling place or ballot box and/or in time for the election, but not be the only way we can vote like it is now.
There is plenty of room for improvement in Washington state elections and this is the first and most important: go back to polling places and ballot boxes, generous absentee voting as Rep. Jim Walsh said, not all mail-in voting.
Please don't be swayed by sensational headlines and statements that are in no way accurate such as how popular all mail voting is in Washington state. It's not.
Thank you.
Cheryl Matthiesen
Chehalis
