From My Corner: October 23, 2021

Voter ID
For many years, people all over the country have been asking for proper voter identification to be implemented, causing chaos leading to legal proceedings, and plenty of misinformation.
The news also had reports of a cruise ship leaving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and people were showing their ID before boarding. I didn’t hear anyone complaining. We know that to fly in a plane you need to show it and when I pick up my medicines at the drug store I have to pull my driver’s license.
The same for the theatres on New York’s Broadway began to open up and I watched on television the long line of people waiting to see Bruce Springsteen with ID on hand and happy about it.
What inspired me to write about this was going to the credit union from where I retired and having to show it as well.
The purpose of asking for identification is to make sure that our elections are honest and clean and after the latest rounds of elections, we should think of this as imperative to guarantee that the system is what we expect it to be.
We’ve heard the most absurd reasons as to why it should not happen such as it’s difficult or impossible for minorities to acquire an ID card due to distance from their homes to the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the cost, lack of transportation, or just that this practice is discriminatory against minorities.
Now, it’s happening all over the Commonwealth; people are becoming so frustrated that there are over 6,000 volunteers collecting signatures to add it to the ballot next November of 2022. I gladly volunteered to do my part and I’m going around asking for support. If anyone wants to cooperate with me, please give me a call.
We only have 3 weeks left to collect the signature sheets, have them certified by the city clerk, and send them to the coordinators.
This will be a requirement for all citizens of any race or color, not specifically for anyone. My response is simple: any person who drives a car must have a driver’s license and that’s good enough to vote. Anyone who doesn’t drive can get an ID similar to the driver’s license for $15.
The requirement of identification to vote means showing something official that tells the poll worker that you are the person on the list. As long as they ask every single person to show it, no one can claim discrimination yet, I’ve been hearing lately the word “racist.”

Lawrence, where we do things backward
The City Council approved last Tuesday, October 19th, which reads as follows:
Electioneering. For the time period designated for in-person absentee voting and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Early Voting Period, no poster, card, handbill, placard, picture, or circular intended to influence the action of the voter, other than those expressly authorized by G. L. c. 54, § 65, shall be posted, exhibited, circulated or distributed in any building where early voting is to take place, including on the walls thereof, on the premises on which the early voting takes place, or within on hundred and fifty feet of the building entrance door.
After the Preliminary Election, we heard lots of complaints about violations of this rule with the excuse that it was not applicable to Early Voting sites.
Well, there’s no argument that it will not be allowed. Let’s see how they can control city employees going to the council chambers to “help” voters with their ballots (and you know who you are!)
The reason for saying that we do things backward is because the City Council couldn’t wait the required 30 days because November 2 will be here soon so they waived the waiting period or posting the Public Hearing.

Enjoy the sweep
In another despicable move, the interim mayor wasted city funds by hiring two street sweepers at a cost of $80 per mile. Occasionally, I see them going up and down my street but I cannot tell about their efficacy because Mt. Vernon’s residents take pride in their properties and keep everything in order.
Meanwhile, people complain of having seen the sweepers in the middle of the roads instead of cleaning along the sidewalks where trash accumulates. That would require signs to be posted prohibiting parking on one side of the street to clean it. That has never happened so nothing gets accomplished.
The funny thing is that they are to finish on Election Day. It was nothing but a disgraceful tactic to get votes. I don’t know who’s advising him on his strategy because that one, plus what he did to the firefighters (canceling the sick leave they had contributed to) was an astronomical miscalculation.
One thing he convinced everyone of is that he’s not intelligent at all. He is nothing more than an egotistical being.

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