As a senior Republican who served in the U.S. Coast Guard and both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, I am writing to express the hope that our Republican senator, Susan Collins, will do her utmost to support and pass federal legislation that, at the very least, secures both equal access to the polls in every state, regardless of party membership, and a fair, nonpartisan certification process nationwide.

In the face of new state laws that threaten both, failure to do this will likely end the American constitutional experiment in consensual self-government that began 234 years ago.

Fred Kellogg
Thomaston