Letter to the editor: Voter suppression must stop

Commissioner Doug Chew does not think you, the voter in Westmoreland County, want a mail-in ballot option (“Westmoreland commissioner says county voters want end to no-excuse mail-in ballots, another disputes that,” March 23, TribLIVE).

He appeared before the Senate committee on election integrity and reform, laying blame on everyone but himself. The company who failed to mail out many of the mail-in ballots (I didn’t get mine) is a pro-Trump company (Trump flag flying high) in Ohio that was handed the mail-in voter list to mail out the ballots. Really? Nothing fishy there.

Many didn’t get their mail-in ballots, which is why so many provisional ballots were filled out. To compound the issue, many of the provisional ballots were discarded because of poor direction. So blame the voter?

Chew thinks we need to educate the voter but failed to address what voters could have done in the 2020 election when they didn’t get their mail-in ballots.

I think we need to educate Chew, but not at taxpayers’ expense. It’s his job.

He said he was concerned by the time frame. Well, if you don’t start early enough, you will have a time issue. So again, blame Chew. His solution? Shorten the time to mail out the ballots.

Chances are if you checked the box to receive an application for 2021, chances are you didn’t get it. Or, you got it and it clearly was a voter suppression playbook.

Let Chew know that voter suppression has got to stop.

Patricia Oliver

North Huntingdon