John Greenlee

Sandy Lake

Last week the Herald ran an article addressing the primary election in which two ineligible voters were permitted either by mistake or intention to cast ballots. Thankfully the impropriety was discovered and is being investigated by the district attorney’s office.

Unfortunately the article states that unless the error was “willful” no penalty will be imposed and also that there was no way to remove the illegal votes from the electronic machines. How can this be?

Are the machines not made and controlled by people? If some volunteer made an honest mistake then that can be forgiven. If not then they should receive the severe penalty the article alluded to.

However, allowing the votes to stand as if the machines are in control is not forgivable and whoever programs these machines and allows their use in the designed format should be fired and replaced by someone who can rectify errors and not blame the equipment.

This occurrence does not instill faith in our voting process.