Letters to the Editor: Online tracking can save this election. The Baldwin Park ballot burning shows how

To the editor: The burning of an official L.A. County drop box in Baldwin Park highlights the importance of tracking your ballot. I put my ballot in a drop box on a Thursday afternoon, and by the next Saturday I received a text message that said my ballot had been received.

We have such a sense of complacency in California about voting safety and respect for elections. But this year, the extreme polarization of our politics has eradicated that comfort. We put up a sign in our yard, it disappears during the night, we replace our sign a bit higher and with some added security, and it still disappears. And so it goes for several weeks.

We never thought much about voter suppression in Southern California, but attacks on our institutions are now ubiquitous, so caution and care are essential.

Track your ballot at lavote.net or ocvote.com. Obviously, those who used the vandalized drop box in Baldwin Park need to check their ballot status immediately. But every voter must now add that layer of protection to their right to vote.

Ann Joynt, Laguna Woods

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To the editor: The Baldwin Park ballot box may be arson? In what universe do the lawmakers who instigated this laudable system exist that they wouldn’t know sabotage is certain in this election?

As far as I can tell, there are no surveillance cameras involved. I read another report that said authorities were trying to find out if any nearby security cameras might have caught something.

I can’t wait to hear some government bureaucrat solemnly inform us that they wanted to install the cameras but there was no money in the budget for them.

David Pabian, Los Angeles