Patricia Bernard: Accuracy critical in voter registration lists, vote tallies

With all the noise about election reform, we need to get back to basics. Put civics classes back into the high schools, so the soon-to-be 18-year-olds can learn what a simple process registration is and how voting is important to this country.

I feel most unregistered voters are responsible for their situation by not taking the initiative to check out how to register. I acknowledge that some may have problems, but not the majority. People are very mobile, and voter registration lists should be verified every four years.

I also agree voter ID is important. I worked a couple of elections and was uncomfortable handing a ballot to someone who just came up and gave me a name and address. For all I knew, it could have been theirs or a grandparent’s.

People should look at the recent recount in Portland; the number of hand-counted ballots did not equal the number the machine counted, and I do not know if they even jibed with the voter registration checkoffs either. They blew it off as not important.

If one extrapolates the small number of votes out, it becomes a large and possibly significant number. It doesn’t matter who won, as long as the final count is complete and accurate. Then the winner or loser has nothing to complain about.

Patricia Bernard, Lewiston