Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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Here in Kansas, we are lucky to have outstanding public servants such as Scott Schwab and Jamie Shew who ensure the integrity of our election process. I have seen firsthand as a poll worker the extraordinary precautions around our elections, and the dedication of the folks who work to keep our elections free, fair and safe.
Therefore I have serious concerns about the agenda for the upcoming 2023 Special Committee on Elections.
Legislators will hear copious testimony from groups that spread disinformation about our election systems. According to the national Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and our own Kansas Secretary of State, we already have adequate protections in place and incidents of election fraud are in fact vanishingly rare in Kansas. Only hearing from special interest groups like the Liberty Lions League and the Foundation for Government Accountability, organizations whose aims align with those of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, elevates a false and damaging narrative. I don’t question these groups’ right to voice their opinions, unfounded by fact as they may be, but where is the balance?
Allowing the voices on only one side to dominate the airtime in these hearings only serves the interest of bad actors domestically, and of enemies internationally, who pour resources into disinformation campaigns, all with the goal of seeing the United States and its democracy fail.
Kansans deserve better from our leaders. Repeating lies doesn’t change them into truths. More civic engagement, not cynicism, is what democracy needs to survive.
— Sonja Czarnecki, President-elect, League of Women Voters, Lawrence-Douglas County
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More Community Voices:
Letter to the Times: City should create oversight committee to guide pool renovation project, rebuild trust
”Our petition’s 1,764 signatures, our supporters’ 75 letters, and our research into the extensive flaws in the (pool renovation) community engagement process all indicate that the previously proposed plan did not reflect public opinion,” Holly Krebs writes in this letter to the Times.
Shawn Alexander: Say his name – Fred Harvey Smith (Column)
”Racial violence has been omnipresent in American history, and in far too many of the incidents, the perpetrators of the crime are acquitted or not even brought up on charges. When I think of such cases I am often haunted by the heinous murder of Fred Harvey Smith here in the land of John Brown in May 1936,” Shawn Alexander writes in this column.
Letter to the Times: Are veterans’ sacrifices for democracy worthless?
”My father (Navy), mother (Army), and many other family members served our country in World War II. … They gave of themselves, in countless ways, to stop the spread of authoritarianism, suppression of freedoms and tyranny of the many by the few,” Sandy Sanders writes in this letter to the Times.
