The recent column by Rich Miller regarding permanent vote by mail was both affirming and frustrating.
The League of Women Voters supports election and voting strategies that are designed to provide ballot accessibility to all citizens and encourage voter participation. This is why the League of Women Voters has long supported vote by mail. While I have seen no data to support it, I was thrilled to read that Mr. Miller believes that vote by mail not only gives citizens voting flexibility based on their needs but serves as a reminder and motivator for voters to make their voices heard at the polls. After all, that’s the point of elections.
Many voters travel for work, don’t drive, can’t drive or walk to polling places, live overseas or simply know who they want to vote for and want to “get voting out of the way.” These circumstances know no party.
And that is why I found Mr. Miller’s column frustrating. The mission of nonpartisan democracy and voting organizations like ours is to inform voters and often to register them. Our websites, handouts, public service announcements and other election activities are intended for all citizens regardless of party. That’s because we don’t care which party the voting public is affiliated with. We don’t promote how voters vote or who they vote for. And we don’t care. We care that they vote.
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If one party were to steer its following to one form of voting over another, and if voters were disadvantaged because of that, that would be unfortunate. Everyone regardless of party deserves to make his or her voice heard, and every voter should be encouraged to vote using any means available under their state’s election system. The notion that our voting methods might drive election outcomes is troubling. It ought not. Parties can and must instill faith in our election systems and methods. The act of voting isn’t partisan, and neither should be vote by mail.
Kathy Cortez, vice president, League of Women Voters of Illinois, Palatine
WBEZ doesn’t deserve unfair scrutiny
The Sun-Times’ nonprofit parent, WBEZ, shouldn’t be subjected to an apparent harassment campaign by Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr.
WBEZ is not immune to criticism, of course. I contributed to a report produced by Chicago Media Action that was highly critical of local public media, but our criticism was done in good faith, was well-sourced and came with an intent to improve the media.
To be fair, there has been a longstanding concern about creeping commercialism in public broadcast media. My colleague at Chicago Media Action, the late activist Scott Sanders, challenged nonprofit public media to stay true to the original intent of public broadcasting and avoid the siren song of commercial funding.
In contrast, Mr. Carr seems to operate with the opposite of good faith and no doubt regards anything that isn’t obsequious to Donald Trump as a blight. I assume that Mr. Carr and the current FCC are hunting for an excuse to shut down or hobble WBEZ and similar nonprofit broadcasters.
I wish WBEZ well in the fight to come, and I encourage all supporters of a diverse media to join hands in that fight.
Mitchell Szczepanczyk, Lincoln Square