A first-time poll worker: NC has a safe, precise system. Here’s what I witnessed.

NC polls

This was my first year as a poll worker. I am impressed. Our system is simple, careful, precise.

Every ballot, whether cast, spoiled or damaged, is counted and tracked. Several times a day that count is verified. If it’s off, a poll judge figures out why and documents the reason. Rarely was it off.

We have a system that crosses every “T” and dots every “I” operated by people who faithfully follow that example. Every step is witnessed by at least two and often five or six other people.

Each polling place has a crew of 12-13, plus observers from the political parties. We can all see and hear each other.

And God bless mechanical tabulators! Each place has one, unconnected to the internet and fully tested and vetted. They are trustworthy servants of our state.

I trust our state and county boards of election to get it right.

Wendy Michener, Durham

Common sense

If I were a Republican senator, here’s how I would game out my duty:

If I judged that the president is refusing to concede because he has a plausible case to make in the courts, then I would continue to support his refusal.

But if common sense told me that the president was drawing this out because he wants to raise money off it, or because he thinks he can retain his base that way, or because his ego won’t let him admit defeat, then I would congratulate Joe Biden for the sake of the nation.

Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, we have gone through enough.

Richard Prust, Chapel Hill

Pass the baton

After Joe Biden’s victory and Donald Trump’s reference to the men and women in the military as “losers,” Trump is finding it difficult to swallow his own words.

He also seems to be unaware of the fact that the democratic electoral process that put him in office is the same one that removed him.

In the ring of election competition he is unwilling to accept the 10-count-and-out, continuing to throw punches, albeit at air, to questionable consequence.

He’s had his chance. Trump should just man-up, pass the baton and think about the country and its people, rather than just of himself, for once.

Richard Kowalsky, Chapel Hill

Cal Cunningham

Regarding Cal Cunningham, we should forgive but not forget: forgive his mistake but remember and be grateful for his superb efforts to add a Democratic seat in the U.S. Senate.

James Peacock, Chapel Hill

Franklin Graham

Regarding “Franklin Graham’s support of Trump causes family rift,” (Nov. 15):

The great divide in America isn’t between liberal and conservative. It’s between those who knew that a Trump presidency would be a big con and those who have yet to see it. Franklin Graham has brazenly participated in that con.

Dressed in sheep’s clothing, he has convinced his flock he has the ear of God or knows what his father wanted. It’s hard to call him by his title “reverend” because he preaches hate of “the other,” whipping up fear so that his followers part with their hard-earned cash to line his pockets.

No wonder the next generation views religion suspiciously. The shameful Graham has only advanced that perception.

Steve Schwartz, Raleigh

Public service

The N&O editorial “Restore the ideal of public service career,” (Nov. 15 Opinion) was long overdue. As a former federal civil servant, I know that government is, indeed, us. Our taxes fund services that we deem to be important, including infrastructure, defense, safe food and drugs, etc.

Many voices over the years believe that government ought to be run more like a business, but government is not about efficiency or making a profit. It is about delivery of services that ensure our safety and well-being.

I wonder how many people who believe in government-as-a-business are happy about the state of our crumbling infrastructure, the abysmal service delivered by a gutted U.S. Postal Service and an inept Veterans Administration, and the failure, in the name of personal liberty, to adopt commonsense public health steps in the midst of a raging pandemic.

How’s that working?

Caroline Taylor, Pittsboro