Letters to the Editor for Sunday, February 21, 2010

Playing politics with polling sites
The online recordings of the last two Lynchburg City Council meetings (the controversy over Ward III polling locations) demonstrate the poor cooperation, maturity and bias of several council members, relating to what should be a simple issue.

Ward III’s poll is currently at Heritage Elementary School, and as everyone knows, parking is insufficient and access is difficult at best.

Vice Mayor Bert Dodson is once again at the center of obstruction, stating initially how it was “disrespectful” to even mention moving the polling place from Heritage, because Lynchburg’s “permanent residents” are used to it being there. In the next breath, he proposed moving the polling place away from Heritage Elementary, to Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene, where it is more “centrally located.” Dodson is trying to have it both ways — or any way — as long as it’s “out of the way” for Liberty University students.

Dodson objected to another proposal, the old Circuit City building, as improper because it was “outside” the district boundaries. The city attorney, a non-partisan officer, said that Virginia code allows polling places to be located outside a precinct’s boundary (as long as it’s within a mile radius), noting that several other polling places were located outside their precincts in Lynchburg history.

Finally, when asked if he would allow both Circuit City and his suggestion to be studied by the Electoral Board for the purposes of objectively determining which one was best, he dismissively refused, implying that LU students are upstarts and not full members of the Lynchburg community.

For these reasons, I can only conclude that he and others on the council are playing politics yet again for personal and vindictive reasons, with the civic participation of student voters again held hostage to their egos.
RICHARD MAST
Lynchburg

Adult duties
Besides being a waste of time and tax dollars, the idea that a new voting place is needed to accommodate, or as Jerry Falwell Jr. says “cater to,” the Liberty University students is distressing.

Not because the students shouldn’t vote — that question has been asked and answered, but because it seems that the institution on Candlers Mountain is becoming Liberty Daycare Center instead of “University.”

For decades, conservatives have ridiculed get-out-the-vote campaigns that offered to register and give rides to new voters who otherwise may not have voted. Well, it seems Liberty is trying to mirror that effort and take it even further. First, there was the registration drive, then since school is a student’s workplace, you get a day off work, then rides to the polls and now you want the polling place at your back door to the detriment of your fellow citizens.

The solution to this manufactured problem is a very adult one. I challenge LU students to just say “Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t need a day off work, and I don’t need a ride to the polls unless it’s convenient to upholding my other obligations. I’ll ‘adult up’ and find a way.”

This is what their college peers and permanent residents do all over the city and state.

Embrace your obligation to transition to the real world confronting real inconvenient situations that require you to make real choices. And never mistake handholding for support.
WALTER DANIELS
Lynchburg