For more secure elections, consider fingerprinting

Fingerprint voters

Regarding “Illegal voting charges against 12 in Alamance touch a nerve” (Aug. 6): We in North Carolina have heard a lot about a photo ID being required to vote. Since North Carolina is an innovative state, we need to think of biometrics. Fingerprint technology is well advanced and inexpensive. It is used by cell phone companies instead of passwords.

Envision the next time you go to vote, you provide your name and address as usual and then have your thumbprint taken. When you vote in the future, you have your thumbprint taken for identification. No one can vote in your name. We can even envision a thumbprint recording device being shipped with each absentee ballot to ensure the voter is who he indicates he is.

The prosecution of parolees for voting illegally should not happen since the state owns the voter list and the list of parolees. If someone is on parole, it should be noted on the voter list beside their name. When they are no longer a parolee, the note on the voter list is removed.

The legislature would have to provide funding for the fingerprint machines and software to enable the system. It should be cheaper than spending gobs of money on lawyers and lawsuits.

ID ‘adventure’

Regarding “Demand for REAL ID adds to long lines at DMV offices” (Aug. 10): I decided to go on an adventure Thursday morning. I arrived at the DMV office at 8:06 am to get a REAL ID.

With a lawn chair, water, iPad and umbrella, I sat down around the corner of the building. On my way to the end of the line, I estimated 130 people.

A staff member came out around 11:30 and advised the temperature was nearing 98 degrees, heat index 103. He advised that half the staff would be taking one hour lunch breaks and that would slow down the groups of 10 that were admitted inside the building about every 20 to 30 minutes. He added that water fountains and bathrooms were available inside. Earlier in the morning the wait per 10 people had been about 15 minutes.

At 12:30, I got inside the building and got a number which was called at 3:15. Fifteen minutes later I left with my temporary REAL ID; the real thing is expected in about 10 days. My right knee was sunburned from crossing my legs.

I should have made an appointment. If you do that, you’ll be in and out in about 15 minutes.

‘Deserving?’

Robert Broome’s defense of defined benefit pension plans for state employees in “We don’t need to cut state worker benefits” (Aug. 12) arises from the indefensible position that government employees deserve a generous, guaranteed pension that is unavailable to all but small a fraction of non-government employees.

He labels as ‘knee-jerk’ any conversation that suggests defined benefit pensions be replaced with defined contribution plans – never mind that defined contribution plans are all that the great majority of non-government workers have available.

Are government workers a special class, more deserving than private citizens? More deserving than the plumber, the HVAC guy, truck driver, store clerk, bank teller, small business owner and all the rest?

Government workers with 30 years can retire in their mid-50s, while the majority of non-government workers are still on the job into their mid-60s, facing retirement without the benefits government workers can rest on.

Our government employees deserve no less – and no more – than the citizens who pay their salaries.

Investigate VA

Regarding “Cabal of wealthy Trump buddies running VA from Mar-a-Lago, report says” (Aug. 8): I write to urge Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr to to immediately call for an investigation and public hearings regarding the “Mar-A-Lago crowd” running the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Our veterans deserve better than to have three members of the president’s golf club, which the president unethically has not placed in a blind trust, secretly runing the VA.

These men are neither government officials appointed with the advice and consent of Senate nor veterans. An investigation by the Veterans Affairs Oversight Committee should determine how these club members came to power and how they and the president benefited from their roles.

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 10:56 AM.