Letter to the editor: We should all want an honest election

It is a felony to tamper with election ballots. An online video showed a Republican poll watcher in Philadelphia illegally being prevented from entering a ballot counting center. (He was later admitted.) In Detroit, workers in a ballot counting center were seen on video putting up cardboard on windows to block challengers from viewing ballot counts. President Trump claims evidence of voting fraud in other tightly contested swing states.

It is vital to our democracy to investigate the legitimacy of questionable ballots before rushing to conclude a winner. If we ignore cheating in this election, we negate the validity of the declared winner and encourage cheating in future elections. Our country is at risk of going from a democratic republic of, by and for the people to becoming a despotic regime run by a dictatorial group of power mongers.

In such a close election, with allegations of widespread fraud, we should not rush into declaring a winner until the vote can be validated. All legitimate votes must be counted. All illegitimate votes must be discarded. All allegations of cheating must be investigated and the cheaters prosecuted.

Not everyone will agree with the outcome of an election, but all should agree with the validity of the count. One would imagine that if Biden supporters were confident of the honesty of the result they would welcome a court challenge to verify it.

Joel Last

Greensburg