Letters to the editor for Saturday, March 7, 2015

Need the proof on ‘illegal voting’

Judy DeRyke’s Feb. 28 letter regarding requirements for voter ID is a wonderful example of the misinformation of this issue that is propagated through certain hysterical “news” outlets.

Regard the sentence, “Is it really difficult to pull out your ID or driver’s license to show who you are?” One big problem: state by state, local governments are capriciously requiring IDs that are not commonly available — in Texas, a hunting license works for ID, but a student ID doesn’t. Guess why.

Many elderly people who have been participating in their country’s decisions for decades no longer have driver’s licenses, and in many areas (like rural Nevada), it is a hardship to get to perhaps the one county entity issuing “valid” IDs — not to mention much deliberately planted confusion about what constitutes that “valid” ID.

But the most egregious misstatement is the wonderfully vague, “There has been proof in areas that non-residents voted illegally ...” Jiminy Christmas, is that really supposed to convince anyone who isn’t already frothing about non-existent “voter fraud?” Give me the proof. Dates. Names. Constituencies. Of actual “illegal voting,” not the unused “Mickey Mouse” registration forms or the unsubstantiated claims of partisan poll watchers who manage to disrupt voting by making threats and overreaching accusations. Statistically — zero.

Ms. DeRyke’s last sentence sums up perfectly the goal of “voter fraud” reactionaries: “... maybe you shouldn’t even be voting.” That’s their hope — because a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is the last thing vote-limiters want.

Leigh McGuire

Stagecoach

A preferable way to manage feral horses?

It is high time for Nevadans to demand an open season on an invasive and alien species — the feral horse. Horses are not native to the Americas and were introduced by the avowed bane of the Amerinds, Christopher Columbus.

At this point, I think that managing them as we do any other game animal would be the best option. Self funding from sale of hunting permits and allowing us to harvest a freezer full of meat.

I realize that this is not a popular position, but it is much preferable to allowing the feral herd to suffer from overpopulation and starvation on lands that were never their homeland.

John Wood

Carson City