Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Were you a voter who voted in the November 2020 presidential election, but thought the election of November 2021 wasn’t important, so you did not vote?

The drop-off in voting between presidential and off-year elections is significant nationwide and significant in the commonwealth, yet the issues confronting us could not be more important. Health care affordability, drug addiction, illegal immigration and climate change top one list of major problems facing Americans today. Rural Pennsylvanians like you and me face a shrinking middle class, stagnating wages, a lag in post-secondary education, slow job growth and poor broadband service.

We need qualified senators, representatives and local officials to address these issues that affect us. In the forthcoming May primary election, voters will select candidates for the U. S. Senate and the House of Representatives, candidates to the PA House and Senate, and candidates at the local level.

People who value government of, by and for the people must understand these issues and support candidates who plan to address them. Information is available on the websites of individual candidates and websites like Ballotpedia and ontheissues.org. Now is the time to become informed.

It is also the time to request your mail-in ballot: https://www.vote.pa.gov/ Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mailand-Absentee-Ballot.aspx.

Be a participant in our democracy. Don’t sit this election out.

— Carole A. Briggs, Brookville Letter to the Editor policy: The Spirit encourages letters to the editor and will publish accepted letters in a timely manner. The Spirit has full discretion to deny publication for any reason. Letters should include the letter writer’s name, address and phone number. No letters will be published anonymously. Letters must be factual, respectful and focus on information and not name calling. Letters should be no more than 350 words, and all letters submitted will be subject to editing. Send letters to editor@ punxsutawneyspirit.com. Letters are the opinion of the writer, not The Spirit.