NC GOP push for constitutional amendments is ‘sickening’

‘Made-up issues’

Regarding “GOP seeks to bolster sway on elections, spending” (June 17): I’m sorry, but I must have missed something. Who has been challenging our right to hunt and fish? Could the answer be, “No one”? Could legislators be putting amendments like this on our November ballot in order to get conservative voters excited about an emotional non-issue so they will turn out and vote?

It’s so transparent that it’s truly sickening.

Can we please focus on important issues like education and the economy instead of made-up issues? I can’t wait to vote in November, and I’ll be voting for legislators who know how to stay focused on things that truly affect their constituents.

ID ‘problems’

Regarding “NC voter ID question could appear on November ballot” (June 8): Having an official voter ID may sound reasonable. Probably 90 percent of North Carolina citizens already have or can easily get one. But what about the remaining 10 percent?

We ran into problems two years ago when we tried to get an ID from the DMV for my brother (now deceased) who was not in good health and needed an ID to file power of attorney forms. My brother and I immigrated to the U.S. when we were 7 and 11 years old, receiving our citizenship certificates some years later.

I still have this document. However, my brother, who went through some rough times, had lost his citizenship papers. Because his birth certificate stated that he was born in Switzerland, the DMV needed proof of his U.S. citizenship. We brought his honorable discharge papers from the Air Force, his transcript from the University of Illinois showing his Social Security number, etc. Nothing satisfied the NC DMV requirement.

We knew his citizenship application number and could have gotten a duplicate. But this would have cost us over $500, at which point we just gave up.

How many North Carolina citizens will encounter similar problems in getting IDs?

Keep elections fair

To say “Much feared Sen. Berger faces a fearless newcomer” (June 17) infuriated me is quite an understatement. Not only is there an effort to suppress voting in North Carolina, now there is effort to control who has a right to appear on the ballot. This has all the smell of the 1950s era Chicago politics.

If Mangrum has met all the residency requirements it makes no difference why she moved, whether her daughter moved with her (remember that the president’s wife and son did not immediately move to the White House either) or whether she reconciles with her husband. Her marital or relationship status has no bearing on the issue at hand. I seriously doubt that these comments would have been made had she been a man.

The State Board of Elections is a quasi-judicial board that is required to render judgements based on facts and is charged with keeping our elections fair and treating the voters fairly. Watch the State Board of Elections and see if its members follow their Oath of Office or merely perform as Sen. Berger’s watchdogs by blocking challengers.

Protect coast

“Thousands of NC, SC homes could be flooded by sea rise, study finds” (June 24) estimates that by 2100, nearly 100,000 homes would be at serious risk for chronic flooding, which would lead to a crash in coastal property value and tax revenue.

We owe it to our fellow North Carolinians living on the coast to do what we can to protect them and their homes, and to do this we need to lower CO2 emissions by reducing fossil fuel consumption.

The carbon fee and dividend (CF&D) is a feasible model that could be followed in order for this to happen over time in the United States. CF&D places fees on fossil fuels at a rate that increases over time, with revenue returned to taxpayers in the form of a flat dividend. An estimated 58 percent of Americans would come out with as much or more money in their pocket than without CF&D.

I encourage Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, as well as our representatives, to seriously consider CF&D as a means of protecting our coastal communities from further damage.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 10:31 AM.