Voter article lacked details

Mike Baker’s July 14 front-page, AP article on voter recruitment is conspicuously lacking in one thing: specific information. It offers anecdotal accounts of voter registration materials having been mailed to pets and deceased persons in Washington state, but we are not told how many or to what effect.

We are told that “administrators in New Mexico,” whoever they are, fear that an unspecified number of undocumented residents in that state are able to vote thanks to voter recruitment efforts. “Election leaders in Florida” claim voter registration materials have been sent to “dead people, non-citizens, minors and pets.” To how many and from whom?

Nowhere in the article is there any specific information about the extent of supposed voter fraud caused by recruitment efforts. Likewise, no evidence is cited to show that recently enacted laws to prevent voter fraud have been necessary or have actually denied legitimate voters access to the polls.

The press is responsible to report the news, even when the news derives from irrational behavior based on an absence of fact. But in such cases the press is also responsible to point out the absence of actual fact and to refrain from speculation and innuendo.

John B. Mason

Spokane Valley