Letter to the Editor: Cyber-security is easy rectified by paper-ballot back-up plan

Having family in Grant, Ogallala, Grand Island, Wymore, Lincoln, Omaha and elsewhere in the state, I pay attention to Nebraska news, especially impending news such as the November local, state and federal election, which is only a few weeks away. 

I read The Grant Tribune Sentinel article: “Nebraskans encouraged to register to vote.” This plea was made by Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale. I have been inside the Secretary of State and Governor’s offices in Lincoln as well as their counterparts’ offices in my current State of Texas, my native State of Kansas, and similar offices in Des Moines, Iowa, Denver, Boise, Idaho, Oklahoma City, and elsewhere. 

I think that as a nation we (as a society) are overblowing the phrases: “meddling in elections” and “collusion.” For Pete’s sake, Bill Clinton and his now nearly moribund “Clinton Foundation” meddled in the 2016 election. Unions, lobbyists and special-interests have ‘colluded’ in elections since before my late dad was born (and he was born in 1910, some 108 years ago).

We aren’t a Society of Federalists and Whigs anymore. In some ways, I don’t think we’ve seen a genuine Democratic candidate since John F. Kennedy; and we haven’t seen a genuine Republican since Alf Landon, who ran for president in 1936. It is just that bad. There aren’t two parties anymore, but “factions” or “wings of a party.” 

The media has distorted the words “liberal” and “conservative.” The word liberal used to have a good connotation: such as spreading the oil of kindness liberally. Likewise, conservative used to have a good connotation as well, such as traditional or reserved. Today, a liberal is equated as a free-spending libertine and a conservative is portrayed as a narrow-minded tightwad.

I consider myself an “Independent,” and by that I mean just that: “Independent.” I’ve never voted a straight-ticket in my life. I judge candidates on merit, and I don’t like the slogan: “Vote for the lesser of two evils.” I want to SUPPORT SOMEONE. I don’t want to defeat them due to a label or title.

I can tell you: No Russian whispered in my ear in the 2016 elections. I think instances of ‘hacking’ are few and far in-between. 

There IS a simple solution. If school teachers in my day could require students use a  No. 2 pencil and darken the oval -—Voters can do likewise. If a student didn’t follow directions: tough luck, the answer was deemed incorrect. At voting places, we have such a thing as “poll watchers” to guard against unfair electioneering too close to the site, as well as any other types of cheating or fraud. 

If school kids get by day after day on tests, then “why can’t we as a nation go back to paper ballots?” They could be read by optica-scanners easily for recounts and even easily photographed. So what if results in a tight-election weren’t known until the next day? I’d rather be a little patient and “get it right” than have a year and three-fourths of people harping, barking and complaining. 

The current system was a knee-jerk reaction to “the hanging chads” (perforated holed ballots in Florida of the year 2000. That was an embarrassment.) We can embrace the newest technology, and we can have complete cyber-security too. Keep more things OFF of cyberspace and rely on paper-ballots, district election officials taking “returns” to field offices or even to state capitols. It cannot take that long. Let’s end this merry-go-round of needless bickering, so we can tend to other elements of The Nation’s Business.

Sincerely, 

James A. Marples

Longview, Texas