Sound Off: SUN readers speak out on the Nov. 5 election

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

I'm not sure whom to blame for last Tuesday's election day, the long lines, missed appointments, late to work as well as back from lunch. Parents jumping polling lines to make sure their kids were safely picked up and then back in line, kids and all!

We all should be very, very proud of what we accomplished as well as braved with all the confusion with too few voting machines as well as understaffed as usual.

Green Valley had a 75 percent turnout in my precinct and that's the most I've seen in my 40 years. It was very, very sad that in the rest of Nevada, as well as across this great land, people don't exercise their rights and be proud to vote for many, many things that affect their futures as well as their childrens' very unsecured future?

Working as a coordinator out in my Green Valley District for the past few presidential elections, I've never seen the turnout and so many voters, patient, polite and positive at what they were doing. We all seemed to work together as one in our Tuesday vote.

We all should be very proud of ourselves, as well as our children whose many parents resisted long lines and cold and windy weather the last few hours to vote. We all showed a lot of class and our very deserving of a pat on the back, indeed let the voting trend begin.

Perhaps our children will Tuesday. Their parents had a goal and completed it. Also, all the seniors and disabled were very respectful in waiting even though we should develop a much easier way for them to vote without all the wait. By the way, if you don't vote, you're really not an American. At least you could vote for none of the above.

Voter Registrar Kathryn Ferguson, please order and try to communicate much better with the surrounding areas to have enough new machines to accommodate all the growing population in such an election with so many ballot questions. That to myself was the major problem, just not enough machines for all the voters. I'm sure many of the voters weren't satisfied and maybe disappointed, but you know it really didn't seem to matter, oooh, aaah!

Charles L. Conti

Be a good leader

I wish to respond to Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and all other officials who have busy schedules. If you know you have the type of position which creates difficulty in taking a side trip to the polling booth on election day, there was plenty of opportunity to schedule a time before "Terrible Tuesday" to vote at the malls.

I also do not agree that it was Ferguson's fault for the one-to-two-hour waits. Voting is a privilege and not the express line at a food store. We only get this opportunity once every four years. Please do not cry out that you are not able to stand one, two or three hours in line to vote, because it will ruin that one day out of four years (1,460 days).

The public should be given the desire through leadership to go to any lengths to vote. Please Jan, give the public a responsible view and no excuses.

Remember that someone stood in line for you. So, show the leadership qualities you were voted in for and don't fall into the trap of blaming others.

Melanie Newman

Great improvement

On election day I, too, waited more than an hour to vote. This at 8:30 a.m.

People repeatedly would take five, 10 and 15 minutes in the booth. Astounding, because, when I got in, I found it to be the easiest and best system that I've encountered in my 50-plus years of voting. Having the exact layout on my sample ballot I was out in less than 90 seconds.

Perhaps in future elections, they could have a booth or two reserved for those who do not have their sample ballot prepared. Let them enjoy those long lines being as they are the cause of them.

R. Reno

Study the ballot

I think post-election responses by people who care about voting are important.

Money is buying votes. Charm is buying votes. Accountability is not buying votes, so I think voters are easily misled. There should be a school for voters, like a high school civics class, because they are being sold a bill of goods and are falling for plastic salesmen.

It aggravated me as an election worker, that people took so long in the voting booths because they did not have the decency to decide at home with their sample ballots how to vote on the many issues.

They help up lines of voters which caused "fleeing voters," people who could not or would not wait. The hours were interminable. It should not have happened.

The lesson will be and should be learned. Voting is too important!

Sylvia Lampe Gross