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The writer of the letter “SCOTUS rules for the voters” (March 6) referenced the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Colorado presidential ballot access case when he said, “[L]et’s not go down the road to a patchwork of states deciding who is or isn’t going to be on the ballot.”
There already is a “patchwork.” The rules for which party and which independent candidates can get on a state’s ballot for president are different for every state. For example, the number of valid signatures an independent candidate has to submit depends on which state is involved.
Because of the Electoral College language in the Constitution, we have separate state elections for president. There always will be a patchwork as long as there is no single national election for president.
Ken Bearman, Minneapolis
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Regarding Wednesday’s featured letter celebrating the “freedom” for Americans to have Donald Trump on the ballot: My confidence in American freedom is based not on the word of individuals who promise it, but upon the way our founders structured our government. The human lust for power and its tendency to be abused is a danger in all times and places, requiring laws and institutions that hold everyone accountable — yes, everyone, even presidents. When I look at the pattern of this man’s life and his penchant for lying, when I contemplate the seriousness of his asserting fraud against all evidence in the 2020 election, his outrage at being held accountable by our courts of law and his promises of revenge going forward, I shudder. This doesn’t smell like freedom to me. I don’t trust that good things grow from lies or that leaders who challenge the very basis of a democracy are to be trusted.