Letters to the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Red Hatters thank gentleman who bought breakfast

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the gentleman who said he was “paying it forward” by buying our breakfasts Monday morning at the Back Porch Cafe.

Thank you!

Diane Crouch

Bodacious Red Hatters

Mailed ballots have arrived, Nevada election safe

The election ballots have arrived and this we know: our ballots are safe here in the state of Nevada. Each person can decide how to return them to the State Elections Office. Send the ballot back by mail in the envelope provided for this purpose, deliver it yourself to the Election Office. Or, you may also vote in person at a designated polling place, one vote per person of course.

Various safeguards, including matching the signature signed on the ballot with the one used at the time of registration is verified on each COUNTED BALLOT. Records are checked at polling places to ensure that no one is voting twice. You can also trace your ballot to insure it was received and counted.

Still wonder if you can trust this election? Your concern is understandable! There has been a constant stream of misinformation here in Pahrump. Postcards, letters and articles have been written without the many so-called ways to cheat with mail-in ballots and voting. Wrong! Refer to safeguards above.

The most deplorable tactics, I believe, however are the ones used, over and over. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are socialists and/or communists.” Answer: Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have long histories of being DEMOCRATS who have served this country for many years. Throw in the lie about Biden raising taxes on the middle class: he has stated many times this is not so. Fact check his position on tax policy. Ask yourself which party passed the highest tax relief bill for the richest people in this country. Trump, as this is being written, is trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act in. court. If he is successful it will mean that thousands of Americans with preexisting conditions will not have insurance.

We are facing a crucial election, but we do not have to be intimidated by dirty tricks! Mark your ballot, get help from our elections office if you have questions. Please vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to lead our country back to the time we could all be proud of being a citizen of this country.

E. Haughton

Reader cries foul on letter for Electoral College

Mr. Jaronik’s statement that dissolving the Electoral College will be a major step toward “dissolving the Constitution as well” is, I believe, ludicrous! Our current Nevada ballot lets the voter consider and vote on eight amendments. The U.S. Constitution has 29 amendments: Both constitutions are ongoing and strong. They allow our citizenry to vote knowing that they can “vote the bums out” at the next election.

Regarding “local control issues, paraphrasing Mr. Jaronik’s suppositions: only those educated, and involved with the currently elected candidates, are able to govern…. to achieve a favorable outcome for the state. (Read that, counties and cities which make up the state).

Really? Educated by whom? With what and whose, agenda, the elected politician’s stated ones or the often hidden but obvious outcomes? Decisions are in fact made that affect all of us at every level of government: which businesses gets the license to open and compete with other businesses in the community? Who protects the air we all have to breathe, our drinking water, our civil and voting rights, how much nuisance-noise must we tolerate— decisions that affect all of us every day.

All too often a cadre of conservative politicians, with their agenda being the bottom line of their balance sheets, makes decisions that impact all of us, at every level..

So, starting with the presidential election - and on down, do we want an Electoral College that lets a minority choose for us, or a democracy that reflects the will of a plurality of our citizens (who must live by these laws).

And yes, we must protect the basic rights of all. We can start by voting for those who will work for all of us, not just the elites on the right! Please vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on November 3rd.

Nancy Jackson Bouce

Another argument for eliminating Electoral College

The Electoral College virtually “erases” the individual citizen’s vote; but it affects only our individual vote for president/vice president, not our vote for any other office. It gives no voice to individuals or minority groups. It exists solely for electing our highest two offices, and injects an unreasonable, non-representative intermediary between the individual voter and the actual selection of the president and vice president of our nation. And it is time we get rid of it! All other voting is already done by popular vote.

Eliminating the Electoral College (EC) would in no way lead to eliminating states, as Mr. Jaronik suggests (PVT 10/9/20), nor does it make any “attempt to give voice …to the individual”. Indeed, it eliminates that voice virtually completely as well. And it certainly doesn’t “…prevent out-of-state party leaders from trying to influence our elections”, in fact it almost invites that, and indeed that is actually happening now, as we write!!!

Nevada, as a small-population state, has only 6 Electors, and has (wisely, I believe) designated them to be our 6 elected legislators (2 senators and 4 representatives), so indeed here our Electors have been chosen by voters.

However, in most other states, Electors are selected by governors, who also may have political pressures (as reported in social media recently in Pennsylvania, to appoint Electors who would vote for the requesting candidate, ‘regardless of the popular vote’). An excellent argument for eliminating the EC altogether!

Electors in other states are not necessarily designated before the presidential election, and in most states once chosen, they ‘generally’ vote guided by the popular vote. Plenty of room for pressure to be applied in that process. Still another good point for going to a direct, nationwide popular vote for the highest two offices!

We do have as educated and reasonably informed a citizenry as we have ever had (hardly the ‘mob’ characterized by Mr. Jaronik), and the technology to handle the process, and we can trust the voters to ‘speak for themselves’.

So while we believe in the concept, ‘one person one vote’, relying on the EC to bundle, boil down, and sum up our votes, certainly distorts that voice, in the direction of the ‘EC winners’, but not necessarily the ones chosen by the people.

The joint statement of 11 governors, including our Governor Sisolak (PVT 10/2) is admirable, affirming our “…sacred right..to cast a vote, and to have that vote counted in the presidential election…” should indeed be “…cherished, revered and defended…” by all of us. But due to the EC, that is NOT how it works now.

To fix this we need to:

1. Recognize how UN-representative and vulnerable the EC is for our presidential elections;

2. Enact a singular amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Sec. 1, cl. 2 &3, to substitute “by popular vote” for the “Electoral College”, and

3. Proceed to use a nationwide popular vote to truly let the people speak, choosing our president and vice president directly.

Sharon Kindgon Moran

Management of resources could help prevent fires

I moved from Laramie Wyoming in 1990. It was a work-related move. I dearly hated to leave a place that I love and had lived in for 25 years, a place that I raised a family that was caring and loving.

When I moved there it was a place where you could go to the mountains and harvest the floors of the national forest for your firewood for your fireplaces. They were glad you did that because it helped clean the forest floors of dead fall. No one stopped you and they welcomed you to do that. It helped clean the floors of the forest and help eliminate the terrible forest fires that are now occurring west of the city I loved and called home for many years.

Everything changed when the Clinton administration decided that it was necessary to start charging people to do what they had done for years, cleaning the forest floors of deadfall. People quit doing what they had done for many years and quit the harvest. I see now that they have a fire west of my favorite city. It has consumed 178,000 acres and is only 30% contained as of October 12.

All of this could have been prevented by sane management of our natural resources. What in the hell is the matter with you folks that think you know better than the people that live there. People in D.C. walk around with their head in places that should be reserved for bathroom places only.

I am 83 years old and have been a registered Democrat all my life. This current crop of Democrats are not Democrats, they are communist and at least socialist. All they think about is getting the power back and ruining this once-great country. Their hate for Trump is so great that they will destroy this great country.

I beg everyone that loves this country as much as I do not to let it happen. Please, whatever you do, do not let this bunch elect Joe Biden and this current crop to the highest office in this land. I thank you for your time and your indulgence. God bless Donald Trump and God Bless America.

Stacy L. Riney