Letter: Message on early voting is asinine

Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 | 8:53 a.m.

Regarding Jon Ralston's Aug. 18 column, "Election officials foster apathy":

There is a major problem brewing in print and broadcast journalism that is locally grown and produced and is getting so far out of hand I dare say he is losing his grip on reality! Jon Ralston is an ignoramus of epic proportion.

His ill-advised and idiotic column -- in which he states that someone who votes early is a "fool or sloth. Early voting ... underscores everything that is wrong with elections in America" -- is so outrageous and despicable a statement, that it amazes me that you allowed it to be published.

His preposterous and contemptuous assertions that early voting somehow circumvents the election process' inclusion role is, in fact, precisely the opposite! What early voting does do is minimize the impact big money donors have on the electoral process.

Ralston's assumption that voting early precludes informed choice, by voting for someone who may have some scandalous disclosure appear in the press on Election Day eve (the day before the first Tuesday in November), is equally asinine. Who's to say that such a revelation wouldn't happen the day after national elections?

What Ralston is trying to say, albeit quite incompetently, is that he prefers elections and political posturing to drag out as long as possible so as to preserve the impact big money has in elections and his own job security. To this I say, "You are a fool and a sloth!"

DAN HYDE