Letter: Election holiday wasted without in-person voting
There were only two places on Oahu where you could vote in person on Nov. 5. Polling places have been replaced by mail-in ballots and drop boxes.
This has been an upside-down transition, removing community from the process. Nothing wrong with mail-in, but taking the time to go to a polling place, see your neighbors doing the same thing and maybe some of them working as election officials, was an expression of patriotism at the grassroots level just when we needed it most.
In the past, very few people could not easily get to a polling place. We used to walk to ours, joining a parade of Americans converging on the nucleus of democracy. Voting should not be driven by convenience, but by commitment. We get a day off for this patriotic, democratic process, one we used to participate in personally. What’s that being used for now?
Brian Barbata
Kailua
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