Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Consider balloting change carefully

Prevailing public sentiment is that chad is bad. The shortcomings of the punch card voting system voting have always been with us and have been fully understood and dealt with by election administrators for the past three decades. However, in light of recent happenings, perhaps it is time for a change.

When considering such a change county commissioners should keep in mind certain points and make such a change for the right reasons.

While the new system of voting proposed by the county auditor will most likely be more user friendly and will eliminate or reduce certain costs, there are some things it will not do:

It will not eliminate the possibility of ballot tampering (in fact it could make tampering easier if election workers are not vigilant).

It will not eliminate overvotes or undervotes (voters will always maintain their right to not vote in certain candidate races or on certain issues, or to be confused by wording on certain issues).

It will not reduce the election staff workload or speed the ballot counting (counting machines costing $50,000 each will count only 400 ballots per minute under optimum conditions).

No, there is no perfect voting system. The commissioners will have a difficult decision when the time comes - $350,000 for a minimal optical scan system or nearly $2 million for a system such as Pierce County’s. Hopefully, that decision will be well grounded and not based on the kind of hysteria we have seen in Florida. Tom Wilbur Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Voters should get it right or ask

I am in the seventh grade at Riverside Middle School and have been taking multiple-choice tests for several years. If I make a mistake by marking the wrong answer or put the right answer in the wrong place, I’ll get it marked incorrect. My grade will be lower because of a wrong answers.

I’ve been in school for seven years and I know that I’m responsible for understanding how to take a test. If I don’t understand, I need to ask the teacher how.

I wonder how long the people in Florida who claim their votes should count have been voting? If they want their votes to count they should be prepared when they go to the polls, just like when I study for a test.

I have never met a teacher who will allow test answers to be changed after it’s been turned in and graded. What do you think most teachers would say if I asked to retake the test because I was confused, even if I claim every answer should count?

I think people should learn that sometimes you don’ get a second chance and to be more careful - especially in important situations like elections. Ryan D. Payne Chattaroy

Smoke blowing in from the far right

Rush Limbaugh and other pundits of the right are indicating that the vote in Florida is a sham and a fraud because there’s hand counting of the ballots and the vote has taken too long. Also, there’s loose chad with the ballots, thus many presidential undervotes occurred because the chad wasn’t fully dislodged and blocked the machine count.

Those of us who vote absentee are certainly aware of the problem. This mantra has been taken up by our local right-wing, semi-literati on talk radio and in letters to the editor.

It’s fascinating to me that people are making these claims despite the fact that we in the state of Washington have no basis for complaining about the speed of any other state’s vote-counting procedures. As of Nov. 22, we hadn’t finished counting our votes the first time. Concerning the Senate race, we are facing several more weeks of hand counting, which is regarded as the most accurate way to count votes in our state, as well as in Bush’s home state of Texas.

Vice President Al Gore has won the popular vote, is leading in the Electoral College and is a narrowing handful of votes behind in Florida.

Shouldn’t the American people be assured that whoever gets the presidency actually won the election? Whose propaganda machine is trying to steal the election? George Holmes Spokane

Hocus pocus is not good enough

This nation is coming very close to setting a dangerous precedent in Florida. I am concerned that the current hand recount is flawed and the criteria for what a vote is seems to be changing on an hourly basis.

It is clear that Vice President Al Gore cannot win on votes cast by reasonable people who either sought help from poll workers or read the directions at the top of the ballot. So, he must return to a treasure trove of votes cast by people who could not follow simple directions or who failed to seek assistance from poll workers.

In fairness to the millions of people across the country who followed the rules, the miscast ballots must be excluded.

At a minimum, all dimpled ballots must be excluded. A dimpled ballot could have at least three interpretations: that the voter did not follow directions and failed to push the chad all the way through; that they started to vote for a candidate but changed their mind and decided to not vote for any candidate; or that the dimple was caused by handing or the ballot-reading machines. It would be impossible for any election official to divine the difference. Therefore, the votes are not legitimate.

In addition, there were ballots that had a vote for each of the candidates punched. What was the voter’s intent in those cases? Was it to confuse the vote counting machine and the entire process? Lees Burrows Spokane

We might try Costa Rica’s ideas

My wife and I have a 16-year-old Costa Rican exchange student living with us for the school year. She is a senior at Mead High School.

Martha has been interested in our election process, particularly the problems associated with voter mistakes and fraud. She told us that in Costa Rica the ballot contains the picture of the candidate, his party logo, his name and, finally, a place to mark an X.

What I found most intriguing, however, is that each voter must stick a finger into a semi permanent dye. The dye stain not only identifies you to the voting booth captains as having already voted but also shows your neighbors that you have done your civic duty!

Would that work in the United States? Joe Kramarz Spokane

Solomon’s wisdom needed now

In regard to our current presidential dilemma, I am reminded of an old story of two women, each claiming to be the mother of a child. King Solomon had to determine which had the child’s best interest at heart. He wisely recognized the woman willing to give up her claim as the true mother. I hope we can be as wise. Rich Olson Garfield, Wash.

Problem rests with Gore

Jim Franey (Letters, Nov. 27) says that Gov. George Bush is not ready for the White House. He is only doing what he has been forced to do.

Vice President Al Gore wants to be president of the United States at any cost and he is proving that daily. He was the one who started this whole mess as he cannot accept defeat.

It is very clear that Bush has won Florida. In fact, I believe he has done so three times. So what more does Gore want?

Congratulations to Bush and Dick Cheney. May they have a great four years as president and vice president. Bobbie L. Thoms Airway Heights

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Rogers reunion brings encouragement

“I know something good about you!” That’s what a little sign said, one I had by the desk when I worked for the city’s water department. Now, I know something good about a whole class from a public school in Spokane.

This summer the 1980 class from Rogers High school held its 20th reunion. Many graduates are right here in Spokane, a few are scattered across the United States, while others are in Germany and other faraway places. Some own their own business, some are engineers, others are teachers. There was a CPA and a coffee farmer, a floral designer, social workers - too many different things too list.

These graduates are doing very well and I believe the students now attending Rogers High School and all the other high schools in Spokane will do just fine, too! Ruth Thomas Spokane

There’s right way to go about `SM’

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom would like to comment on your coverage of the alleged criminal activities of Edmund F. Ball, David M. Dailey and Lana C. Vickery.

NCSF would like to make it clear that the SM-leather-fetish communities uphold the guidelines of “safe, sane and consensual,” which means that participants must understand the nature of the activities and willingly give their consent. There are currently over 500 educational and social organizations in America teaching adults about safe, sane and consensual SM and fetish activities. According to the Kinsey New Report on Sex (1990), 5 percent to 10 percent of the adult American population regularly engages in consensual sadomasochism.

NCSF supports ongoing education by these organizations to ensure that activities are safe and limits are respected. NCSF also supports the full investigation and prosecution of anyone engaging in nonconsensual activities. Susan Wright policy director, NCSF, Washington, D.C.

THE MEDIA

I miss Shaw, Wilde

I thoroughly agree with Zone P. Gookstetter’s letter of Nov. 24th. I have been watching KHQ’s news for 20 years. Randy Shaw and Debbie Wilde really made that news show. Now that they are both gone it’s just not the same. Grace Leidt Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Non pro-gun-rights item an outrage

“Only lap dogs and Englishmen” (Nov. 18), from the Chicago Tribune, once again shows how far left your paper leans. Without composing a word yourselves you align with gun-grabbing, rights-repressing, liberal do-gooders. This article, if printed at all, should have been in the editorial section. It was not reporting but expounding a personal philosophy.

Guns are no more responsible for the Columbine massacre than matches were for the Seattle warehouse fire. When will you and the rest of the liberal media advance the idea of personal responsibility rather than the Band-Aid mentality of gun restriction-confiscation? John L. Simmons Spokane

Editor’s note: The item referred to included the label, “Commentary,” underlined and in 18-point type, just beneath the headline and above the beginning of the piece.

OTHER TOPICS

Bypass argument unconvincing

Gee, Frank Yuse (Letters, Nov. 22), how much was your speeding ticket through Colfax? Makes you wonder why we need an expensive bypass for such an insignificant town, just to save some speeding ticket dollars.

How, I wonder, has my husband never gotten a speeding ticket on his way to work from Steptoe to Pullman during the last eight years? It’s called “following the law.”

Yuse refers to the fact that Highway 95 bypasses the Idaho towns of Craigmont, Ferdinand and Cottonwood. What about all those other bothersome towns, such as Worley, Plummer, Riggins and the biggest bother of all, Moscow? Wouldn’t our valuable state transportation dollars be better used to avoid that bottleneck of a street in Spokane called Division? Shirley Cornelius Steptoe, Wash.

Forests need active, sensible care

It looks like we must regulate our forests the way we regulate building fire safety. Enough acreage has burned in the West since 1944 to equal the size of six Eastern states (World Magazine).

State legislatures should come up with some balanced laws to reduce tree stand densities, to cut down on fire hazard due to thick underbrush and diseased, thin trees caused by overcrowding.

Some environmentalists say to let nature take its course. Is that wise? Forty billion board feet of lumber have been lost in recent years due to forest fires - enough to build three and a half million homes and to give our U.S. government another $10 to $16 billion in tax money from the sale of such timber.

I advocate a modified logging plan, where less profits are made but where remaining trees have a better chance to grow. Stronger, healthier trees produce more oxygen for cleaner air and provide more lasting shelter for wildlife.

Maybe the forests in California don’t need to be thinned. That’s why I recommend, state by state, that we deal with the managing of our forests. There is much in state and private property that needs to be regulated. If I thin my forest but my neighbors don’t, my forest is more likely to burn. Thinning doesn’t stop a fire but can reduce its speed and hence how much it burns before it’s put out.

Let’s begin talking about how best to care for our forests. Merilee T. Moser Spokane

Be responsible about dogs, cats

Re: “Tell which animals are doomed” and “Kitten killed needlessly” (Letters, Nov. 12 and 20).

In the United States, 7.5 million dogs enter shelters each year. Of these, 60 percent are euthanized. The National Council on Pet Population reports 71 percent of all cats that enter shelters are euthanized.

In 1999, the Spokane County Animal Shelter took in 5,991 dogs and cats. Of those, 2,465 were euthanized (41 percent). Of the total cats processed at the County Animal Shelter, 56 percent were euthanized - well below the national average of 71 percent.

To solve pet overpopulation people can do the following.

1. Spay/neuter.

2. Be educated owners.

3 Keep your dogs and cats from roaming.

4. Keep all tags and licenses current.

5. Adopt animals from shelters or reputable rescue operations.

6. If you have never bred animals before and have the slightest inclination to breed, don’t.

7. Volunteer your services at local animal shelters and promote spaying and neutering with financial donations.

8. Take responsibility for your pet.

9. Seek help from trained professionals or your veterinarian for behavioral problems.

10. If you are moving, take your pet with you.

11. Avoid impulse buying. Only one in five dogs stays in its first home. Connie Seymour Save a Dog, Pet Relocation Program, Spokane

Don’t adopt pets on a whim

Re: “Tell which animals are doomed” (Letters, Nov. 12).

People need to realize that the animals at the local shelters are all doomed unless their owners claim them or they are adopted. Animal shelter employees never get used to taking the blame and the burden for society’s unwillingness to deal with the pet overpopulation problem.

Too many people acquire a pet in the flush of emotion and on impulse. Is it really the shelter employee’s fault that Sue Manly came in unsure of her ability to commit to owning a pet? She stated in her letter that she had not checked with her husband beforehand.

When you are considering making a furry addition to your family you need to ask yourself some serious questions, before visiting an animal shelter, a pet store or breeder: Have I researched the species/breed for care requirements?

Does my roommate, spouse, landlord, etc., know I am considering owning a pet and are they in agreement? Can I make the commitment to 10-15 years (on average) of pet ownership?

If you can answer yes to these questions, go to the animal shelter and you will not leave disappointed. Emily Priest-Toliver Spokane