I’m writing in response to Mr. Bruce McClay’s letter to the editor in regards to the childishness of some Republican’s responses to the outcome of elections.
While I won’t disagree about behavior (though some cases may be warranted), I am confused by how Mr. McClay sees it as one party with the issue.
I have some grown children but he references a grandchild, so he must be old enough to remember as far back as me to bad behavior.
Al Gore’s loss to George Bush in the Florida recount was an infamous one and he was sore for years, often bringing it up.
More recently, Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump was immediately claimed as stolen and tampered with.
It isn’t party lines — it’s human.
The solution? All states work hard to ensure election integrity. Vote counting should be efficiently and accurately finished and reported by the end of voting day, close elections aside.
Whichever state is doing it well should be the model, which seems to be Florida right now.
The longer counting takes and exceptions are made the more likely voters and those running will question the results.
Somehow we seemed to do pretty well overall before modern technology. We should be experts by now.
If we quickly clean up errors in the process and become efficient with the tabulations, the less likely to see bad behavior.
I think both parties would be in agreement on that.
Joy Goodell,
La Center