Letters for Thursday, Feb. 19

SAVE Act doesn’t save anything

Rep. Baumgartner said in his last newsletter that he was proud to have voted for the SAVE Act, as it requires Americans to show ID to vote. He failed to mention that many voters whose names do not match their birth certificates due to marriage or who lack passports will be disenfranchised, even though they are citizens and entitled to vote.

But the real question is how rampant is voter fraud in this country? The Heritage Foundation, a well-known conservative think tank, combed through records from 1982-2024 and only found 1,620 cases of convictions for voter fraud.

Those 1,620 convictions were out of over 2 billion votes cast in federal elections. The fraud rate is minuscule: 0.0000675%.

While legal authorities should pursue all cases of voter fraud, the magnitude of the fraud is incredibly low.

May I suggest that Rep. Baumgartner – instead of grandstanding about his voting for the SAVE Act – focus on issues of greater import and impact to the American people, such as maintaining our civil rights; stopping the arrest, detention, deportation and murder without due process of U.S. residents; and providing health care to people in need.

The congressman needs to do his job and stop kowtowing to a president who has been claiming voter fraud since 2020 without any evidence. He shouldn’t be trying to take his constituents’ right to vote away; instead, he must work for them, address their needs, and earn their vote rather than chasing unicorns.

His performance review is coming this November.

David Bessen

Spokane

Baumgartner seems fine with illegal and immoral Trump actions

Anyone thinking that The Spokesman is partisan-biased need only read the opinion article from Feb.. 7 by Ingrid Jacques. It reads like an audition for a Trump Cabinet position.

Also, it’s amazing that Republicans are able to unilaterally get behind the worst candidates, while Democrats insist on in-fighting and idealizing their momentum and power away. We have to face some sobering realities as the midterm elections approach:

Michael Baumgartner has consistently defended (or at least ignored) the inhumane and illegal actions that his felon president has implemented.

There is only one of the two major political parties (Democrats) that has not completely sold out to the damaging and destructive Trump agenda. As imperfect as they are (and they definitely are), you can retrace their actions over the past several years to identify any and all legislation that has benefited the vast majority of Americans.

In our current system, only Democrats or Republicans will win major elections – the rest of the field are spoilers.

If we want change from a Trump acolyte like Baumgartner (and we certainly should), we need to pull together and vote in record numbers for the strongest candidate we have. I believe that candidate is Carmela Conroy. She has a proven track record, as well as having won the 2024 primary and earned 40% of the general election vote. Of course you’re welcome to research candidates for yourself, but my sincere hope is that everyone will work to unseat Baumgartner in November – we need and deserve better.

John Cross

Spokane

WDFW commission must abide by public records laws

After reading the article by Jerry Cornfield (“WA Fish and Wildlife saga deepens with claims of collusion”) and following the various lawsuits against the state, specifically members on the WDFW Commission, I thought this was relevant.

Agenda item 11 at the WDFW Commission meeting on Saturday, Feb. 14: Rules of Procedure Discussion and Vote–Discussion, Decision, specifically beginning at commission member roles, where Commissioner Roland is confused and resisting the use of state-issued computers and cellphones, with a preference for using her own. When told that that is not acceptable and that would subject her personal equipment to the public records act, she suggested that would not happen.

This stance is in clear violation of the state’s public records act. Gov. Ferguson should step up now and immediately remove her from the WDFW Commission.

Kevin Dickey

Nine Mile Falls