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Readers React: We saw what teenagers could do after Parkland. It’s time for them to make real change and vote

An 18-year-old first-time voter walks up to a polling booth at the Watts Towers Arts Center in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, 2016.
An 18-year-old first-time voter walks up to a polling booth at the Watts Towers Arts Center in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, 2016.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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To the editor: If you are 18 and registered to vote for the June 5 primary like op-ed article writer Jason Fong, congratulations. You are keeping the American representative system of government alive.

The next step is going out and actually casting your vote, either by mail or in person. If you like the way things are going today, then vote to keep them going. If you don’t, then vote for change. Get your friends to turn out, too.

We have seen what the energy of young men and women can make happen when they focus on change. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have given us a glimpse of the future.

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On the other hand, if you are 18 or older and are not voting, then don’t complain. In today’s America, we need people who will stand up and be heard, whatever their opinions may be.

Michael Kranther, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Fong repeats the leftist talking point that it is a hardship for certain voters to obtain identification cards in states that have voter ID laws. That is a total myth, and it is about time that intelligent people stop this farce.

Everyone from age 16 up can try to get a driver’s license, which is an ID card. One has to produce an ID to cash a check, to open a bank account, often to use a credit card, to board an airplane or interview for a job.

Most adults already have an ID card. And if it is such a hardship for some people to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get an ID, then how are they getting to the polls?

I have worked as a clerk and as an inspector at several polling places over the last 30 years in California, which does not have a voter ID law. Many people come to the polls with their card ready and are surprised to learn that the state does not have a law requiring they show ID to vote.

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Twila Le Page-Hughes, Torrance

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