The author of a recent letter to the editor (“Truth about voting in Maine distorted,” Sept. 23, Page A10) said Sen. Susan Collins “chose to lie to a national audience about Maine’s system of voting.”

Sen. Collins said Maine has “one of the highest turnouts in the country… .” Sen. Collins is right. According to World Population Review, Maine’s voter turnout in 2020 was third highest in the nation at 76.3 percent, behind Colorado at 76.4 percent and Minnesota, the highest, at 79.9 percent.

Shenna Bellows, Maine secretary of state, and a Democrat, referred to “… tried and true (voting) practices already proven to work in states like Maine and across the country” in her testimony on Feb. 21 to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.

The real issue is the Freedom to Vote Act, a misnomer if there ever was one. This bill would nationalize the voting system, wrenching it from the states, which, under our Constitution, have authority over state and local elections.

For me, it’s a delight to vote in person. Turnout is important, of course, but turnout by itself is not the issue; the issue is “participatory” turnout, which, for me, means voting in person here in Bridgton, experiencing the full measure of our right to vote and, most important, educating yourself on the issues. Anything less diminishes the value of this cherished right.

Here in Maine, we are doing well enough with our current system. Leave it alone.

Bob Casimiro
Bridgton


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