VOTING LIMITS A REPUBLICAN PLOYRepublicans once loved mail-in voting. What happened?

Republicans know that voters of color and shift workers benefited the most last election from the methods that they are now trying to eliminate. The Texas, Republican voter suppression bill creates criminal penalties for election workers who refuse to accept a disruptive poll watcher and expands what poll watchers can do during elections and prohibits poll workers from removing poll watchers who violate election laws.

Less poll workers will mean less polling places which will cause longer voting lines in cities. Allowances for poll watchers will also slow down the process which will also cause voting lines in cities to be longer.

750 Texas polling places have already been closed by Republican legislators in predominantly communities of color. Less polling places means longer voting lines in cities.

Less mail-in voting means more people will have to vote at the polls which means longer voting lines in cities.

Republicans eliminated straight ticket voting will slow down the process and cause longer voting lines in cities.

Republican legislators know that longer voting lines will prevent many people of color from voting in Texas cities. Many people are not able to stand in major city voter lines for six hours or even more. All major cities in Texas are Democratic strongholds.

Most Texas rural communities vote Republican, but rural voters don’t have to worry about standing in long voter lines because they have many more polling places per person than cities do.

Protest!

Ronald Hurst

Nacogdoches

BUDGET INSTEAD OF RAISING DEBT CEILINGThere seems to be more urgency around the upcoming debt ceiling limits on government borrowing. Janet Yellen is saying failure to raise the ceiling will result in irreparable harm to the U.S. economy and faith in our federal government. I guess Secretary Yellen forgets the U.S. Treasury takes in $350 to 400 million dollars per month or about $4.5 trillion per year. The U.S. Treasury is hardly broke and there is plenty of money rolling in every month to pay debt and meet obligations.

Raising the debt ceiling each time we get close to it does nothing to get America on a path to fiscal and budgetary discipline. Maybe it’s time Congress actually used that debt ceiling to temper spending, prioritize budget items and stop bankrupting future generations. Otherwise, why bother with a debt ceiling at all?

Doug Towns

Tyler