Letters to the Editor: Send mail-in ballots to all voters — even ‘inactive’ ones

To the editor: George Skelton’s column defending mail-in voting was on point. One issue that might benefit from more exploration is whether to mail ballots to voters who haven’t voted in four years.

According to Skelton, this is one of the concerns expressed by the Republican Party in its lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom over his plan to mail ballots to all registered voters for the Nov. 3 election. Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) is planning on amending his bill to prevent ballots being automatically mailed to these so-called inactive voters.

Nowhere is it explained why this is considered important or even proper.

Personally, I take elections very seriously. I follow the news closely and I have voted in every election, primary and general, since I was first eligible in college. However, that doesn’t make my vote more worthy than that of someone who votes only during times of crisis, or even whenever they feel like it.

While I wish more people would pay attention and vote regularly, we shouldn’t put up additional barriers to participation by those less engaged. As Skelton notes, there are adequate protections to prevent voter fraud.

Randall Gellens, San Diego

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To the editor: I for one am against sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter.

My mother-in-law voted by mail until the day she died. We informed all the agencies and people who needed to know of her death, but for the next two years my wife and I continued to receive her ballot.

How easy it would have been to fill it out and send it in. We didn’t do this, but I wonder how many people might have.

Richard Jenkins, Glendale

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To the editor: Skelton is right on about the safety and efficacy of mail-in ballots.

But the editor who wrote the headline above the continuation of Skelton’s column on Page B2 (“Ignore Trump’s rants on mail ballots”) could have summed up the situation by eliminating everything after the first two words.

Just ignore Trump.

Jim McDaniel, Long Beach