Rigging has been done by Republicans

A rigged election? You bet — but the rigging has been done by Republicans, those in Washington and those who control the governorship and the legislature of a given state. Their goal has been offensive to American ideals: to prevent American citizens from voting if they are likely to vote for Democrats. Here are three examples:

Before the 2016 election, at least 868 convenient polling places in Democratic strongholds were closed by Republican administrations. Those are still closed, and by the 2020 election about 500 more had been taken out of service.

The Trump administration disabled (and in some cases destroyed) highspeed sorting machines and removed postal drop-boxes, slowing mail processing as the 2020 election drew near.

In Texas, the Republican governor decreed that only one ballot drop box would be allowed in each county. One box for the strongly Democratic Houston area (Harris County), population 4.4 million. One box for Loving County, population 87.

Now President Trump again makes false claims of fraudulent voting, conveniently forgetting that soon after assuming the presidency he set up a commission to study why he lost the 2016 popular vote by almost 3 million votes, a commission that quietly folded up its tent because it could find no significant evidence of fraud. Now Trump has lost the popular vote by a margin of more than 5 million, and the only damage to our country stems from his refusal to allow a smooth transition to the Biden presidency.

George Bauer, Norman