Some of America’s Problems Can Be Fixed

Some of America’s problems can be fixed. Voting in the November election should not be a problem for Americans. Open the polls for at least two days. Every state should open their polls from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Some states already have later evening hours like Californians who may vote until 8 p.m. and New Yorkers who may vote as late as 9 p.m.

Some states allow you to show up at the courthouse and vote early. You vote on one of the voting machines like always if you aren’t available to vote on Nov. 3. Indiana will allow voters to come in as early as Oct. 6 to cast their ballot. It’s called “Absentee in-person voting.” This would be a good idea for every state. You will never have more than one or two people in front of you when you vote early. Social distancing occurs, you pick the day, and you know for sure your vote has been cast.

The stage for a fiasco is set for any kind of mail-in ballots this year. It’s a big issue. Some people want it, and others don’t. This is not the year to try it out. People are hollering social distancing and COVID-19. Yet, these same people are walking through Walmart.

One idea for handling the election day voting is to let Chick-fil-a handle the process. I’ve never seen anyone take the orders of 50 cars and have all their food to them in 10 minutes like they do at our local Chick-fil-a. Every time I go there, I think, “Wow, this being closed on Sunday is just killing them.” I say that as a joke, of course, as their business is better and greater than ever.

The United States post office has timed their demands for money at the right time. They’ve declared they can’t guarantee delivery of mail-in ballots on time because of lack of funds. Can they ever really guarantee delivery? I mail stuff out priority mail occasionally, and sometimes it shows up 10 days down the road. The promised delivery time is sometimes much shorter than actual delivery. I would never depend on my vote making it to the courthouse via mail. Oregon uses mail entirely for voting. Washington state has a lot of mail-in votes.

I’m sympathetic with the needs of the post office. Eliminate Saturday mail delivery and close the post offices on Saturday. This should save some money. Go ahead and raise all the postage costs 5 percent. Many Americans pay their bills online. Christmas cards are going out online for many. Plus, someone needs to make sure Amazon is paying a fair price for delivery of their goods. Free delivery of Amazon products is not really free. Someone is paying the cost. For seniors older than 70 on minimal incomes, give them some free stamps very month to mail their bills. They’re already hurting enough.

Some of America’s problems can be fixed. Our greatest problem is fixing Congress. They are the greatest obstacle in solving most of our problems. ♦