Many Manatee County voters have not reordered their mail-in ballots

Don't miss out: Reorder vote-by-mail ballot

Time is running out for possibly 80,000 Manatee County residents.

They falsely believe that they will be getting a vote-by-mail ballot for the August primary, but they will not because they have not yet made a new request to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections.

In 2020, more than 128,000 Manatee voters chose to vote by mail. However, in December 2022, all of their requests were terminated due to new legislation passed in Tallahassee.

Qualifying period ends:At least 14 races set for Manatee County primary ballot

Since then, barely 50,000 have made their new request, according to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office. That means nearly 80,000 voters in our county who have historically chosen to vote by mail no longer have a request on file.

In addition, some voters have been removed from the rolls based on a cross-check with the U.S. Postal Service for changed addresses.

We strongly encourage all Manatee County voters to, first of all, vote. But they should also:

• Try to proactively check their current registration status to ensure they were not incorrectly removed.
• Verify their polling location (as they do change).
• Renew their request to vote by mail (if that is their preference).

The deadline to request a ballot is 5 p.m. Aug. 8, with the primary Aug. 20.

Terri Kondos, Voter Services Chair, League of Women Voters Manatee County

Closed primary? Change parties

We would like to expand on the letter that was published June 19 (“Open primaries: Let all voters vote”).

While we agree 100% with the writer’s comments and suggestions, we want to point out that there is an easy work-around to this problem if you have a computer and a few minutes to invest in this important democratic process of casting your vote for those whom you wish to represent you.

We both just changed our party affiliation to Republican and are now eligible to vote in the Aug. 20 primary election.

Once we have placed our votes, we will simply go back into the website and change back to our preferred voter status. If you, too, would like to make this change to allow your voice to be heard, simply visit https://registertovoteflorida.gov/home, click on “Register or Update” and then “Record Update/Change” and complete the required information.

The deadline to make this change is July 22 for the upcoming primary.

CJ and Mardi Coury, Holmes Beach

Scott escaped from HCA unscathed

Three years after Rick Scott (now a U.S. senator), became CEO of Columbia/HCA, a large hospital chain, a whistleblower from one of its hospitals reported the practice of carrying two sets of books, enabling Columbia/HCA to bilk Medicare of close to $2 billion.

At that time, fines rather than incarceration of executives were the going punishment for cheating Medicare. The company did not fight the charges and paid $1.7 billion in fines.

It also rapidly jettisoned Scott with $10 million in severance pay and about $300 million in company stock. Some executives were indicted, but not Scott.

(This is all well documented in the book “Money-Driven Medicine,” by Maggie Mahar.)

Politics were probably involved as Republican Sen. William Frist, Senate majority leader, was the brother of Dr. Tommy Frist, an HCA co-founder and company officer. The rest is history.

Martin E. Kodish, M.D., Lakewood Ranch

At debate, don’t fall for Trump’s Big Lie

At the presidential debate June 27, former President Donald Trump will again in all likelihood claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

It is worth repeating that the former president lost that election by more than 7 million votes.

Recognize that each ballot contained many other voter choices – senators and House members, along with numerous judges and other civic officials − and all those 7 million-plus ballots were read into the system electronically.

Yet none of those elected at the same time as Trump have ever claimed that their election was tainted with fraud.

It is time for all electors to reject this Donald Trump lie.

William Lloyd, Sarasota

Double standard on shootings

When some violent American takes a gun and kills an innocent person, the left goes nuts, screams and yells and calls for a total ban on guns. Period.

However, when some guy from South America who answered the Democrats’ invitation to “come on in” commits a violent crime, the left is silent and finds someone else to blame.

Maybe in November the people can “throw the bums out.”

John M. Alexander, Sarasota