Small Town Polling Is Being Threatened It’S Fashionable for Politicians to to Goodland to Vote in Their Own Open Say They Care About Rural America
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Op Ed Colby Free Press Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Page 3 Cynthia Haynes Small town polling is being threatened It’s fashionable for politicians to to Goodland to vote in their own Open say they care about rural America. elections. • Season It’s fashionable for politicians to Steve Haynes How long will city government say they are going to do something survive in small towns after this? for rural America. Along The scary thing is, state and But in truth, hardly anyone in • the Sappa county officials have rolled over Washington or Topeka knows what and just accepted this dictate from We’ll take it, even goes on out here. There are not very Washington. Not one county so far many of us any more, and they have has said, “Take your fancy ma- never been here. chines and your federal money and Washington gives a nod to rural Sure. Helping America Vote may which may cost $10,000 each and just stick ’em.” if it’s white moisture America now and then, mostly have started out as a good idea, but haven’t really been invented yet No state has stood up and said, They really should call spring the which had been in full bloom, hung when the Farm Bill is up. But the that was before all the special inter- anyway. “Our small towns are important, silly season heavy with snow on its branches Department of Agriculture is more ests and pressure groups got a hold The government may put up too, and we don’t want to see them I know that term is usually re- and flowers. The tulips, which had about welfare and cities these days of it. As passed, it requires all vot- some money to buy them and the die.” served for the legislative session, been ready to open, were clamped than it is about farming. ing places to be in buildings which state may put up some money, No one planned to put an end to but Mother Nature gets downright tightly shut. In Washington, they pass laws all meet standards of the Americans though it has none. And the coun- small-town elections. But in To- giddy during the spring. I was more than an hour late get- the time, one-size-fits-all laws that With Disabilities Act. All polling ties may just get stuck with the bill. peka and Washington, no one Easter was sunny and cool, but ting to work. The roads were icy, might work in cities (though it’s places must have fancy new touch- No one has any money to make 80- knows where these towns are, flowers were popping out all over and I decided to give the plows a doubtful) and just mess things up in screen voting devices to help handi- year-old buildings accessible. though some of them may have the place. little time to do their work. rural areas. Now we have the Help- capped people vote. The result: There will never be been raised in one. Worse yet, no In front of my house, the daffo- The day warmed up, like it was ing America Vote Act, passed after Neither requirement has much to another local election in most one cares much what happens to dils I planted along a wall were all supposed to do, and Tuesday was the ballot-counting fiasco in Florida do with the problem the law started smaller towns across rural Kansas. them. It’s just collateral damage in bloom and the tulips were bud- beautiful. By Wednesday, tempera- four years ago. out to solve, but now that there are All polls will be in the county seat. from another good idea gone ded. The forsythia was fitfully tures were back up in the 70s and The voting act strikes out at some federal standards, they have to be If you can’t drive in, you’ll have to wrong. blooming and the crocuses were 80s and the snow was almost gone. real problems, but it grew to include politically correct. vote an advance ballot by mail. ***** past their prime. Even the tulips had consented to comprehensive federal standards But there are no ADA-compliant So a citizen of Brewster or Steve Haynes is co-owner of It was really a beautiful day. open up and show off their beauty. which just won’t fit rural America. buildings in most small towns. The Rexford , to vote in a city election, Nor’West Newspapers: Colby Free Steve mowed the yard and we en- Wednesday night, we got home It will centralize voting and may economy is so bad, no one has built will have to drive 10 miles or more Press, The Goodland Star-News, joyed the cool sunshine. from work early and cooked outside well mean the end of democracy in any new buildings. And rural coun- to another city. It’s already hap- The Saint Francis Herald, Bird City Then we had to go to work. We on the grill. Then we washed off the small towns all over the country. ties can’t afford more than one of pened in Sherman County, where Times, The Oberlin Herald and The always work on Sundays. Usually, picnic table and ate outside under Naw, they wouldn’t do that. those touch-screen computers, citizens of Kanorado have to drive Norton Telegram. we go in late and work until mid- our gloriously blossom-filled pear night or so. tree. I had really worried that the E-mail your comments to: [email protected], or mail to 155 W. 5th, Colby At 12:10 a.m. Monday morning, cold snap would cause all those I stepped out into the darkness and beautiful blossoms to fall off. spotted the first few tentative snow- Sitting there as the perfume of the flakes. tree drifted by and the cats took With the drought we have been turns slipping in and out of the having, all moisture is welcome and house, I know I loved spring and I I remembered the snowstorm we loved Kansas. had six or eight years ago when they However, I was wondering if almost had to cancel prom because someone didn’t need to give Mother there was such a bad storm a day or Nature a Prozac. She seems a little two before the big event. confused. Oh well, maybe she’s However, I was praying for a blonde, too. snowstorm that would melt quickly ***** — like right away, so I wouldn’t Cynthia Haynes is co-owner of have to deal with bad roads on the Nor’West Newspapers: Colby Free Doonesbury way to work the next day. Press, The Goodland Star-News, The next morning, I awoke to The Saint Francis Herald, Bird City • Gary Trudeau about six inches of snow on the back Times, The Oberlin Herald and The deck. 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