Letters to the Editor: L.A. County voters made a big mistake passing Measure A yesterday, and Los Angeles County voters will make a bigger mistake in November.
In a recent column, I wrote of my dismay over the decision to remove all voting machines from Los Angeles County, citing the need to protect the integrity of the vote.
In a subsequent column, I reported on a study of the impact of removing voting machines from the county, and pointed to a “very serious problem.”
These were thoughtful and well-reasoned pieces of commentary which reflected my disappointment over Measure A passing.
But in the current campaign, the campaign to remove voting machines from the county has become a more serious one, in that it has been taken to a new level of vitriol and cruelty.
First out was City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who wrote, “I don’t see the purpose in having voting machines anymore.”
As my colleague Steve Rubenstein noted, Garcetti was quoting from a letter he received from one of his constituents, and the text of the letter itself was not without its problems. The letter, first reported on by the New Times, began, in part, “We have an amazing history as elected officials in Los Angeles County.” It then went on to say, “We have a system that allows citizens to count the votes when they want to do so.”
Then, Garcetti turned the tables on the voting machines and said, “The only reason the Los Angeles County clerk decided to do this is to make it easier to steal Los Angeles County’s elections by giving the government to the rich.”
The rest of the article was a diatribe on the need to “keep LA County government from being controlled by corporations.”
It was a diatribe, and it was filled with false and harmful criticism of the need to remove voting machines from the county.
It was particularly a diatribe against the voting machines used in the June primary, which Garcetti has claimed, in his recent comments, was designed to “delegate its
