Feb. 11 Letters to the editor

Pullman’s downtown

I read all the editorials in the Daily News; some I agree with, some I don’t, but read them I do. In most cases, even when I don’t agree, I rarely comment. However, professor Ayad Rahmani’s comments on Friday were a touch too personal.

Professor, in addition to this column, you have opined your dismay about most of the buildings in downtown, sent your students out to study what you termed as “architorture” on Bishop Boulevard and even took swipes at the drawings and plans for the new terminal at the airport. You profess to offer suggestions of help, but most come across as derogatory and demeaning.

Luckily, the Downtown Pullman Association continues its work to help business and the overall downtown area. DPA is in the process of hiring an executive director who will develop a plan for the entire corridor, working together with business and building owners on improvements with positive suggestions and ideas. With some positive input, we can and will revitalize downtown.

Jim DeVleming

Pullman

Not one word wasted

I’d like to recommend an op-ed found in the Spokesman Review on Feb. 6 titled “Dissension over masks, vaccines distract from our common microbial enemy.” The author’s experience includes over three decades teaching college courses in biochemistry and infectious diseases and he clearly knows how to communicate. Jim Russo’s succinctly written piece builds on interesting historical information, briefly explains actions he feels “imperil us all,” but wastes not one word with ad hominem arguments. I found this refreshing opinion online by searching the writer’s name on the Spokesman’s website. Here’s the shortened web link: bit.ly/3gAqMNl

Virginia Colvig

Pullman

Time for more research

Here is a definition; “lacking knowledge or awareness.” Now, go find the word.

Ms. Lois Johnston had an opinion letter in the Jan. 28 Daily News about voting, where she attributed a quotation to a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Stevens. In a subsequent opinion letter by Antone Holmquist, he disputed the attribution, claiming he is unable to locate the quote.

Ms. Johnston responded in another opinion letter, chided Mr. Holmquist; be more careful in (Google) searches. Ms. Johnston, so kindly, provided a year (2008) of the opinion and a website as support for her attribution, but not a specific URL.

I, too, could not find that quotation on the internet nor on the website provided by Ms. Johnston. The year aided the search for the case, “Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 553 U.S. 181 (2008),” available on the Supreme Court website and on the website provided by Ms. Johnston.

The quotation, or anything close to the quotation, does not appear in Justice Steven’s opinion. It does not appear in the concurring or dissenting Justices’ opinions, either. If one searches for “ballot fraud” in Justice Steven’s opinion, that yields one instance, in a footnote (No.12) within the opinion, and does not support the meaning or intent of the quotation. Definitely, there is a lack of knowledge.

A study showed 0.00000013% of ballots cast in the 2002 and 2004 federal elections were fraudulent. In Montana, from 2006 to 2016, only one voter fraud case was prosecuted, and that involved a husband marking his wife’s ballot, signing her name, and submitting it.

If Ms. Johnston is so concerned about fraud, why is she not concerned about the fraud by Trump to extort, and blackmail, the Georgian AG to find 11,870 votes in Georgia?

A lack of knowledge.

Brandon Burch

Pullman

Suppression, not fraud

I apologize to Joe Long and the readers of the Daily News regarding my letter to the editor published Feb. 1. I wrote that his assertions that in an (unnamed) poll democratic voters favored draconian policies regarding vaccine mandates were “far fetched paranoid fantasies.”

I was wrong; he was quoting from a Rasmussen poll. The questions posed in the survey mentioned by Mr Long seem to serve the purpose of riling up Republicans; chances are nil that any of the measures listed in the poll have a chance of becoming actual policy, let alone taken seriously.

Lois Johnston also takes me to task in her letter of Feb. 8. In my Feb. 1 letter to the editor, I included this quote of Justice Stevens in the 2008 Supreme Court case, Crawford v Marion County Board of Elections, “ballot fraud does occur, and it can make a difference in a close election.” Lois repeated the quote in her letter, somehow equating it to “the U.S. has a long history of voter fraud.” something she attributed to Justice Stevens in the same case.

Following Lois’ advice I found this quote of Justice Stevens from the same case in Justia.com: “There is no evidence of extensive fraud in U. S. elections or of multiple voting, but both occur, and it could affect the outcome of a close election.”

With billions of ballots cast in our nation’s history it would be naive to assume no voter fraud has ever occurred.

Efforts to make voting more difficult are being conducted in the name of election security but are really efforts at diminishing voter turnout, something the Republican party now firmly under the foot of the former president, think is in their best interests.

Antone Holmquist

Moscow