Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster claims he sees college students voting illegally everywhere. The evidence is nowhere to be found. Are these hallucinations?

No. It’s a smokescreen. The real objective is to limit senior-citizen voting. Why? The extremists who now control the Republican Party have launched major attacks on Medicare, Social Security and the pensions of government workers and public school teachers. This, while they are gifting the ultra-wealthy and the Exxons of the world.

They know that senior citizens, in particular, are not happy and vote in high percentages. The national GOP, with corporate financing, has implemented a campaign to limit voting, especially the elderly vote.

The GOP has proposals restricting voting in more than 30 states. Those identical proposals — eliminating same-day registration, complicating absentee voting and requiring photo IDs — are especially effective at limiting senior voting. They could reduce the number of voters by 5 million people.

The Maine Republican Party, following national GOP instructions, is doing its best to implement all of these objectives. The party comes first. To hell with democracy.

It is time to recognize that this is not the traditional Republican Party. This is not the party of Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Dole, Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan. The GOP is now controlled by ideological, right-wing extremists. It does not represent moderate middle America.

Corporate interests (including international corporations) and unrestricted corporate money direct its objectives.

It’s time to turn this around. It starts with the right to vote.

Robert Melaragno, Auburn