Letters to the editor: Voting, testing, licenses, school lunches
Ballot drop boxes
I believe I have an easy solution to the conversation about choices for voting in our national election. Why not send every household ballots (like we do a census) and have them use a drop box at their local polling location to place their finished ballots? Signatures could be verified, the Postal Service would not be overwhelmed, people would be safe from Covid-19 and it would end this entire voting fraud conversation.
Wayne Lohrenz, Meridian
School lunches
I read the article in the newspaper about Idaho being the only state not to file the required paperwork for the lunch relief program during the coronavirus pandemic. Apparently, this responsibility lies with the Department of Health and Welfare, who also has the responsibility to ensure the safety of Idaho’s children and to remove them from their homes if they are victims of abuse or neglect. I find it incredulous that the same department charged with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of Idaho children “hasn’t gotten around to” filling out the necessary paperwork to ensure they continued to get food and nutrition over the last four-plus months. Doesn’t this rise to the level of professional negligence? Who is responsible to ensure that this is corrected immediately?
Andrea Leeds, Boise
Get your license
Welcome to anyone choosing to move to Idaho.
From the Idaho Transportation website, a new resident has “to apply for an Idaho driver’s license within 90 days of moving to Idaho. Whether your out-of-state license has expired or not, you need to apply for an Idaho driver’s license within 90 days of moving to Idaho.” Also from the website is, “You must title and register your vehicle within 90 days of moving to Idaho. Whether your out-of-state vehicle registration has expired or not, you must title and register your vehicle within 90 days of moving to Idaho.”
Today, I encountered two out-of-state cars with expired license plates. One was expired in May 2019 and the other was January 2018. Both cars had California plates on them. While I’ve seen many out-of-state cars with expired plates, including Washington and Oregon, California cars seem to be in the majority with expired plates.
I do not care for people who do not follow our laws. Your license plate fees pay for the infrastructure that you and I depend on. By not changing your license and plates, you place a greater burden on those that live here already. Please follow our laws!
Vicky McIntyre, Boise
Slow testing
Our granddaughter recently received a Covid-19 test. She was told it would take two weeks to get the results, so her quarantine will be over by the time she gets them. This made me look at the daily report of confirmed cases printed in the Statesman in a very different light. We really have no idea how many people have the virus and makes it clear that the only value testing has (barring false negatives) is confirming for the individuals tested whether they have Covid-19.
I’ve also been thinking for some time that it would be much more helpful if the Statesman would clarify the confirmed case numbers in terms of rate per 100,000 residents to put them in perspective and how that rate compares to other areas of the country. Perhaps that would help people take the situation more seriously.
I also read that Dr. Fauci said 75% of test results nationwide are received within five days. And while that’s still not really worthwhile for purposes of contact tracing and other important aspects of controlling these outbreaks, it does put in perspective how poorly Idaho is doing that it takes nearly three times that long to get results here.
Louise Jacobsen, Boise
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 3:01 PM.