Kansas moved my Olathe polling place without telling me. That hurt seniors especially

Election obstacles

I just read Thursday’s letter to the editor (10A) from an Overland Park man who described the confusion he and his wife faced trying to vote Tuesday, and I wanted to say that my experience in Olathe was exactly the same: I received no card in the mail telling me my voting location had been moved. I arrived at my previous polling place, only to be told I was in the wrong spot.

After being given the address of where to go, I discovered it was a long walk in 90-plus-degree temperatures. I was told that when this new venue was decided upon, it was expected that its parking lot would be completed by Election Day. It was not.

Many voters are elderly and have limited mobility. This unexpected situation was at best a deterrent to their right to cast a ballot.

- Marilyn York, Olathe

Multiple values

Kansans are joyful this week because of Tuesday’s elections.

We want the government’s hands off our right to make decisions about our health care. Many of us voted no because our personal needs are not the government’s business.

It is insulting to women to suggest that they are incapable of making these choices and are less than full citizens with less than full constitutional rights.

We also said that we want to preserve the Constitution’s separation of church and state. We believe that a few who hold particular religious convictions were trying to force them on all of us. A little respect for everyone’s faith would mean a lot.

This referendum was much more than Republicans against Democrats. There was no way we could have reached the numbers we did without crossing all the lines that seem to separate us.

When I think about the phrase “value them both,” I can’t help thinking that was an insult to parents whose pregnancies ended in miscarriage. They valued the life they were creating and were devastated when it ended through no fault of their own.

There were many reasons we Kansans voted the way we did.

- Joe Woelfel, Olathe

Cheers from afar

I’m a resident of Florida and want to express my thanks and gratitude to the residents of Kansas who voted in record numbers to protect abortion rights in their state. Brave, wonderful people. Kudos.

- Richard M. Lobo, Tampa, Florida

Against liberty

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall says “he cannot begin to find words to express the sadness that I and many others are feeling” that voters overwhelmingly rejected the Legislature’s attempt to restrict abortion rights, because he thinks it dealt an enormous blow to protecting the sanctity of life.

His view reveals a major contradiction among conservatives. They claim to be for individual liberty and against government overreach. They fought against COVID-19 shutdowns and mask and vaccine mandates during the pandemic. They are adamantly opposed to what they see as socialist programs such as maternity leave, aid to dependent children and funding day care and school lunches, but they have no problems with interfering with the bodies of pregnant women and forcing them to carry a fetus to term. How is this not the same government overreach they despise?

In their opposition to gay marriage, they fall back on disguised religious beliefs, such what they call traditional values or the sanctity of life. In other words, they are quite comfortable imposing their religious beliefs on others.

Simply put, not all religious denominations share these conservatives’ beliefs about abortion. If they truly believe in individual liberty and are against government overreach, they should heed what pro-choice people stand for. None of the latter force women to get abortions.

- George Magakis, Norristown, Pennsylvania

Nope, not that

Thanks for The Star Editorial Board’s suggestions on how to vote in the Aug. 2 election. (Aug. 1, 4A, “Here are The Star’s endorsements in the Aug. 2 primary elections”) I always do the opposite of anything it suggests.

- Dan Wakeman, Lansing

Ditch the signs

Whether you are a politician or not, if you put political signs on public land, please have the decency and respect for your community to remove them if they are no longer relevant to the general election.

- Rick Marien, Overland Park

This story was originally published August 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.