Sir, – Michael McDowell equates 30 per cent of the American public who have sincere questions around the 2020 presidential election with those who believe in a “satanic global conspiracy to dominate us” and Scientologists (“QAnon well on its way to becoming America’s new religion”, Opinion & Analysis, July 27th). This is misleading and condescending in the extreme. The fact is that in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin – the three states which tipped Joe Biden over 270 electoral votes – the election was decided by a fraction of 1 per cent of the vote (0.23 per cent, 0.31 per cent and 0.63 per cent respectively). In dealing with an unprecedented global pandemic, legislatures in these states rapidly ushered in significant changes to election procedures. Some of these changes were prudent, such as expanding access to mail-in ballots. Some were of dubious intent, such as weakening signature verification rules for these same mail-in ballots.
Fiddling with electoral mechanisms is not a partisan issue in the United States, as illustrated by New York appellate judges recently striking down congressional district maps heavily gerrymandered toward Democrats, and the significant swathe of everyday Americans who are innately suspicious of political high jinks and acutely aware of a polity polarised along virtually 50/50 lines shouldn’t be caricatured for voicing their concerns. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN SHINE,
Dallas, Texas.