Morgantown residents support mail-in-voting
West Virginia’s primary election has been rescheduled for June 9. While we applaud the governor’s decision to postpone the primary, we question his plan to hold an in-person election. Early voting begins May 27, only 23 days after the epidemic’s estimated peak in our state. This is unacceptably dangerous. The safer alternative for this election: Conduct it entirely by mail.
The current plan includes two parts: Absentee voting and polling-place voting.
Part 1: Absentee ballot applications will be sent to all registered voters. To obtain a ballot, each voter must fill out the application (which is complex) and return it to their county clerk. Clerks will process the applications and mail voters a ballot, which they must complete and return.
Part 2: Polling places will also be open for early voting and on Election Day. Typical elections in West Virginia require 9,000+ poll workers to staff 1,700+ polling places. Even with fewer polling places, vast numbers of poll workers will be needed, ignoring health risks to all poll workers, supervisors and voters.
County clerks are being asked to manage two elections — one by mail, the other in-person. This places an excessive burden on clerks, particularly in counties with limited staff and budgets and causes serious risks to public and employee health.
Generally, West Virginia has responded well to the pandemic. But, none of us can predict the timeline or whether in-person voting will be safe by late May. We urge the governor to rethink his current election plans to protect public health.
Rather than asking clerks to mail out absentee applications to voters, we suggest that they mail out ballots, eliminating the need for absentee ballot processing and in-person voting altogether. The governor should conduct the primary entirely by mail to safeguard the health and safety of all West Virginians.
Judy K. Ball
Morgantown
City Council maintains Morgantown’s high quality
Linda Newcome, in her letter published April 5, says, “ … Morgantown is run by a bunch of blooming narcissists.” I wonder if she has ever met anyone on the current city council. She complains about paying to park and the user fee for people who work in the city and the pending rise in the sales tax. We are limited in how we can raise money for our city, and our attempt to add to our tax base by annexation was shot down. Raising the user fee was taken off the table by Council last year.
As to downtown being a “ghost town,” I beg to differ. We are doing better than most small towns, and once we get through the current pandemic, I predict we will come back stronger than ever.
The roads Ms. Newcome mentions are part of the state road system, and once the Mileground is widened, the roundabout, which works better than the previous traffic light, will be even better. And the intersection of Collins Ferry Road and University Avenue, which she mentions and is in the ward I represent, will make that corner much safer for everyone.
Ms. Newcome suggests that we “should have a small group of common people looking at each budget to see where all monies go and look at places where changes could take place to save tax dollars.” That’s exactly what the city council is. None of us are career politicians, but folks who live in the city of Morgantown, care about what happens here and are elected by people who live here.
We want to be the best city in West Virginia, and that means supporting our police and fire departments, providing recreational facilities for our families and keeping the local roads paved well. That takes money, and we have been as thrifty as we can be while maintaining the high quality of life that people in Morgantown expect.
Barry Lee Wendell
Morgantown
Councilman
Not OK to call COVID-19 the ‘China virus’
A recent letter to the editor (DP-3-29) justified President Trump’s use of “China virus.” Our president should not continue doing what’s an unacceptable practice in today’s world. Mores and customs change; what was acceptable yesterday can be insulting or simply wrong today. Old habits should be changed out of common decency or perhaps necessity if they insult or harm.
For example, most know it is wrong to ascribe an inexcusable action of an individual to his/her ethnic group; thus the “Chinese” flu should be called the coronavirus or COVID-19. We don’t want Americans of Chinese heritage threatened or considered somehow less American. Sometimes change is necessary; what we considered a friendly handshake yesterday is an invitation to serious illness or even death today. Trump should set the moral standard.
The letter writer also claimed the left-wing mainstream media falsely accused President Trump of being “a racist” when he said it was a “Chinese virus.” This claim would be valid if Trump didn’t have such a history of bigotry and shifting blame from himself. He has a long-standing problem of bias that extends to certain religions, opponents and women. The repeated use of “Chinese virus” is part of his long-standing patterns.
The implication that the mainstream media is “left wing” and thus tainted also requires comment. Mainstream newspaper editors and editorial boards have points of view, but their investigative reporters and news editors do their utmost to crosscheck facts before publishing a story, and if wrong, they usually say so in print.
Proof that mainstream reporters have most often “gotten it right” is consistently demonstrated when the facts of a particular story eventually become known. It is difficult to find reliable news today in a world of falsehoods and half-truths from foreign governments, politicians, social media, talk-show hosts and yes, even from our president. The most reliable source is our mainstream newspapers, including The Dominion Post.
Newspapers warrant admiration not denigration for consistently exposing lies, corruption and disloyalty across the span of our nation’s history. They overwhelmingly do so today.
Robert Shumaker
Morgantown
Libraries offer more than books to communities
As a librarian, I’m often asked why we still need libraries when “everything is online.” The question can be exasperating, but I’m always happy to answer, because it gives me a chance to broaden someone’s understanding of the many things libraries do, online and otherwise.
The function of libraries has indeed shifted over time, to the point that books may be an afterthought for those who head to Morgantown Public Library for WiFi, language-learning classes, genealogy research, puppet shows or the numerous other programs and services MPL offers. But libraries were never just about books. Above all, they’re about meeting community needs, and our needs have changed immensely over the past 20 years, let alone since the earliest public libraries popped up here in the 1700s.
Libraries are one of the only places in this country where someone can simply sit indoors, no purchase required: This makes the library a literally life-saving facility about four months out of the year. Now, amid a global pandemic, MPL continues to meet a huge range of needs even while the building is closed. It’s providing free WiFi, digital books and media, interactive Facebook posts, mental health resources and more.
No other institution meets as many different community needs as a public library, and it would cost most of us less than $10/year to keep it going. The library is there for us at the best of times and the toughest — let’s be there for it by voting for the levy on June 9.
Lynne Stahl
Morgantown
Trump administration not prepared for COVID-19
Why is it, as we start into the heart of this pandemic, we all realize we are not ready? Why are we already in “catch up mode”? Just as things get tough, we find we are short on masks, gloves, hospital beds, ventilators and heaven knows what else. Did our leadership not see this hospital care crisis coming? Did they not see the steps China had taken with “stay-at-home” orders, building new hospitals, wearing masks, social distancing and completely “locking down” whole towns and provinces? Did they not see the death toll for a 24-hour period in Italy was over 900 people? We are weeks behind and find our health care system is already overloaded and on life support. Where is our country’s leadership and what have they been watching, thinking and doing all this time?
Supposedly we elect leaders who know what they’re doing and can demonstrate their skills when times get tough. They should have a “vision” for this country and where it needs to go for the betterment of all people.
TIME Magazine says the problem started over 18 months ago when President Trump had his then National Security Advisor Chairman John Bolton “eliminate the National Security Council’s global health security unit and demote its pandemic experts.” TIME says that office would’ve served as an early warning system about new diseases and impending pandemics. The former director says he would’ve “been sending up flares” as this disease developed last December in China. That office would have also helped coordinate the dozens of institutions, health agencies, hospitals and local and federal governments.
I would have to assume that the present administration thought they could do a better job running the country in a crisis without help. The bigger problem is they still think they can. Trump said, “We have it totally under control. It’s going to be just fine.” (1-22-20) “It will all disappear.” (2-27-20) A bigger problem is he also said, “No, I don’t take responsibility at all!” (3-13-20) Voters need to remind him of “where the buck stops.”
Tom Talerico
Morgantown
