To Ensure That Our Election Is Fair and Open

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/opinion/letters/voting-election.html

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To the Editor:

Re “The Battle for Biden,” by Michelle Cottle (Sunday Review, July 26), about how Joe Biden’s “governing vision is shaping up” and all the people looking to influence the candidate’s agenda:

The biggest election battle is likely to be over a fair, open, conflict-free process. Who’s safeguarding the ability of the Postal Service to deliver absentee ballot applications in a timely manner, and to return the completed ballots likewise? Who is safeguarding the electorate against intimidation at the polls?

Should we expect uninvited armed militia at our polling stations? Who is working to guarantee a free flow of information unmuddied by meddlers intent on retaining the status quo?

As Ms. Cottle writes, “Joe is gonna be Joe.” It’s up to us to do everything necessary for the nation to freely make an educated, unadulterated election choice.

Pam SloaneOld Greenwich, Conn.

To the Editor:

In “American Catastrophe Through German Eyes” (column, July 25), Roger Cohen rightly raises the alarm about the prospect that President Trump will concoct a pretext for invoking a “‘state of emergency’ if he does not like the November election result.”

Mr. Trump has been utterly unsubtle about suggesting that if he’s defeated at the polls he’ll not step aside, on the notion fully fabricated in advance that he has been the victim of voter fraud. The Democrats need to say here and now that so transparently a self-serving claim of that kind cannot be credited. Now. Not after the fact.

The president and his enablers have to be made to understand that their attempts at the subversion of democratic processes will be exposed before they can be implemented. Because after the fact there will be no turning back.

Paul BetzChapel Hill, N.C.