Base your vote on democracy and climate solutions

Published 1:30 am Sunday, August 14, 2022

The election coming up this November is crucial. There are many significant issues that the people we send to Olympia and Washington, D.C. need to deal with, including abortion, guns, fair taxes and equal rights. But two issues outweigh all the others.

The most urgent issue is the preservation of our representative democracy. When it became apparent to our previous president that he was losing his re-election bid, he tried several methods to overturn the results, including asking swing states to alter vote totals, filing numerous legal challenges without evidence, employing “false electors” and asking Vice President Pence to disrupt the certification of the election. When all these failed, he incited an armed mob to attack our Capitol where the election results were being certified. He continues to complain that the election was stolen from him. He has never conceded. Now he is preparing to run again in 2024. He is endorsing supporters to run for secretary of state is several swing states, where they would be in a position of modify or disrupt state vote tallies. We can’t take the chance that our free and fair elections will be hijacked! We need to avoid voting for candidates who support Trump and the “Big Lie.”

The other overriding issue is not as urgent, but potentially more grim. Human-caused global warming threatens the way of life of not only most Americans, but people around the world. We need to elect politicians who accept the science and are prepared to take the hard steps necessary to battle climate change!

When we address these two issues, we can be confident that we will be able to discuss and act on other important issues going forward!

Eric Selby

Lake Stevens