Letters to the Editor for Thursday, February 4, 2010

Integrity of local elections in jeopardy
Jerry Falwell Jr. has done what his late father could never do in amassing the voting power of Liberty’s student body to hold actual sway over local elections. As a lifelong resident of Lynchburg with no affiliation with and even less affinity for Liberty University, I know that until there is a legal challenge as to what constitutes a registered voter or a challenge to LU’s tax-exempt status as a religious institution that is simply how it is. But until that day comes, I would at the very least like to point out a couple of things in the hopes that we can discuss this situation in realistic terms.

Falwell Jr. is thrilled that his students participated in the process and exercised their rights as Americans to vote.

What a fantastic thing that is. Voting. How curious that students at Liberty University only now, in the last calendar year, have learned to appreciate that right that so many have died for over the course of so many years and so many wars.

It couldn’t have anything at all to do with the fact that students are now given the entire day off from classes and bused to their polling location. It would appear that exercising their inalienable right to vote as far as it applies to LU students only extends as far as we make it simple for them. As if to underline that point, now there is discussion of moving the Heritage Elementary polling station closer to LU. How much easier could it possibly be for them?

Concerned college students have never been denied the right to vote. It’s called an absentee ballot. I used one for years when I lived away at school so I could always participate in the politics of the town I called my home, Lynchburg.

What we have now is the opposite of taxation without representation. It is representation without taxation. It is a primarily transient student body wielding unnatural influence over the future and direction of our community without paying any money for the right to do so.

If an LU student chooses to make Lynchburg his permanent home, he certainly can. I welcome them and the money they will pay in personal property taxes and vehicle registration fees. When those steps are taken, I will also welcome their votes. Until then, I will see their participation in our local elections as nothing more than a game conveniently won by a handful of people who have been clever enough to work the system for their own selfish reasons.

It’s my hope that other lifelong and vested residents of Lynchburg are as equally offended by the current situation and finally decide to challenge the ridiculous influence these people have over our community. A big ugly scar on a once lovely mountaintop is one thing; wreaking havoc on the legitimacy of our local electoral system is something else entirely.
JENNY POORE
Lynchburg