Page A-6 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, June 18, 2020
ElEGTMMVflMATIEBS
National calls for vote-by-mail are simply unrealistic
ecently, I got a call from
Ra college friend who is
now the chair of the
Election Commission
in Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts. She wanted
my advice on how to
convert their elections
system to all vote-by-
mail by the November
presidential election.
I asked about their
current set—up. In the
past, a voter in Mas- By PADDY
McGUIRE
sachusetts has had to
have an excuse to cast
an absentee ballot, cer-
tifying that they will be out of
town or are physically unable
to get to the polling place on
election day. About 4% of vot-
ers generally vote absentee. I
asked about their equipment
GUESTGDLUWMV
and she told me that they
have counters in each of their
precincts that voters feed
their paper ballots
into, one at a time.
I asked her about
whether they have
access to the signa-
tures on voter regis-
tration cards in their
voter registration
system. She said the
signatures were on
the cards themselves,
not stored electroni-
cally.
I then told her
about our processes, how we
handle incoming ballots and
use the barcode with voter
information to retrieve the
saved image of voter’s signa-
tures in the voter registration
system to verify the ballot
came from the voter. We have
staff trained by the Washing-
ton State Patrol to do signa-
ture verification; You can’t
just have untrained staff do
that job.
I explained that we have
a scanner that can take an
image of both sides of the bal-
lot at a rate of about 100 a
minute, about 20 times faster
than their equipment. I de—
scribed our drop boxes, that
we provide prepaid postage
and that our voters have been
voting this way a long time, so
they know what they’re doing.
My point in all of this is
that calls for switching to
vote—by-mail nationally now,
while well-intentioned, are
simply unrealistic. Election of-
ficials cannot make the chang-
es necessary to change from
polling places to vote-by—mail
by simply flipping a switch.
I could not stand up a
polling-place election in time
for November, find 40 some—
thing polling places, several
hundred poll workers, produce
poll books, buy booths and
have the infrastructure in
place to make it work, not to
mention letting 41,000 voters ,
in the county know that every-
thing has changed and where
to go vote.
Big transitions like these
require new equipment, train-
ing, processes and lots of voter
education, none of which hap-
pens overnight.
I am a huge fan of vote-by-
mail. I hope the safety, securi-
ty and voter convenience that
we enjoy here will one day be
available across the country.
It’s not perfect, especially for
people with vision difficulties,
where voting with privacy and
independence can be a chal-
lenge, but overall it’s a great
system.
Voters having confidence
in the outcome of the elec-
tion is already under fire. The
election this fall is just too
important to make wholesale
changes that will undermine
voter confidence. My advice
to my friend was to go slowly
and do it right.
I Paddy McGuire is the Ma-
son County auditor. He can be
reached at 360—427-9670, ext.
468.
China’s push for strategic—mineral dominance an alarming trend
vately held manufacturing business
in Seattle, switched to making face
cutting edge technology.
China’s control of rare earth and
tute when forging steel. It takes 13
pounds of manganese to make 1 ton
hile the coronavirus pan-
demic and civil unrest are
front page news, China’s un-
relenting push to leap over our coun-
try in critical technology and
hoarding of strategic metals
should alarm us.
Since the coronavirus
pandemic broke out, there
has been an unprecedented
worldwide demand for per-
sonal protective equipment
(PPE). Tensions between our
countries fueled the wide-
spread fear that Chinese
imports would disappear.
China provided 48% of
our PPE imports in 2018, but Chi-
nese exports of essential hospital
supplies declined significantly in the
first months of 2020.
“Fortunately, domestic manufac-
turers coast-to-coast ~— from Hickey
Freeman’s tailored suit shop in Roch-
ester, New York, to Dov Charney’s
Los Angeles Apparel T-shirt factory
in South Central L.A. —— are firing
up production to help fix the supply
shortage of face masks and hospital
gowns as a result of the coronavirus
pandemic,” WWD.com (fashion de-
sign website) reported.
In Washington, companies such
as GM Nameplate, the largest pri—
By DON
BRUNELL
shields to prevent the spread of CO-
VID‘-19 virus.
While many domestic
manufacturers are able to
step in and convert produc-
tion lines to make PPE
products, it is a bigger chal-
, lenge with cutting edge
technology and stockpiling
strategic metals.
China recently an-
nounced a new trillion dol-
lar program to develop next-
generation technologies as
it seeks to catapult itself
ahead of the US. in critical tech-
nology areas, Wall Street Journal
reporter Liza Lin wrote. The focus is
artificial intelligence, data centers,
mobile communications and super-
fast cellular (5G) networks.
While President Donald Trump
is pushing to bring technology and
manufacturing back to America,
Chinese leaders, as part of the Made
in China 2025 plan, are investing
heavily to replace foreign tech com-
ponents with locally made products,
Lin added. The strategy is to have
local governments, China-owned
companies and the national govern-
ment partner to fund development of
critical metals gives it a key strategic
advantage. The rare earth metals are
important because of their distinct
magnetic, luminescent and electro-
chemical properties that make many
technologies perform with reduced
weight, emissions and energ con-
sumption.
The US. Geological Survey adds:
“These special metals provide greater
efficiency, performance, miniaturiza-
tion, speed, durability, and thermal
stability.”
While the 17 elements classified
as “rare earth” are not commonly
known, they are critical components
in products ranging from smart
phones and laptop computers to
batteries, electric vehicle and jet
engines, wind turbines, LEDS and
major weapons systems.
The U.S. imports 80% of its rare
earth metals from China. China sits
on 40% of the global deposits and
produces 80% (120,000 metric tons)
of the world’s supply. Australia is
second with 20,000 metric tons.
China also is the world’s larg-,
est supplier of critical metals such
as manganese. Manganese is the
backbone of all modern industrial
components and there is no substi-
of steel. The United States has no
manganese production, although it
has deposits of manganese ore.
“The current coronavirus pan-
‘demic has exposed significant supply
chain challenges associated with
our over-reliance on fomignéaudsu '
especially Chinese) raw materials,”
Sandra Wirtz, American Resources
Policy Network, recently wrote in the
Economic Standard.
PPE has become the poster child,
but whether it’s smartphone technol-
ogy, solar panels, electric vehicles,
or fighter jets — critical minerals
are integrated into all aspects of
US. supply chains. And, despite the
United States being rich in mineral
resources, we have maneuvered our.-
selves into a spot where we often find
ourselves at the mercy of China.
That is a dangerous position that
our elected officials need to address.
I Don C. Brunell is a business ana-
lyst, writer and columnist. He retired
as president of the Association of
Washington Business, the state’s old-
est and largest business organization,
and now lives in Vancouver. He can
be contacted at theBrunells@msn.
com. ~ '
LETTERS cont. from page A-5
Defunding
police
is nonsense
Editor, the Journal
To lighten up during
these troubled times, I’ll
often turn on YouTube and
watch network TV cover-
age of election night 2016.
In party-like atmospheres
(except on the more seri-
ous FOX channel), all the
talking heads then and
there were absolutely giddy,
secure in the knowledge
that Hillary would win in a
landslide. Heck, all the polls
said so.
Then then the elec-
tion results started coming
in. The sets grew quieter and
soon, a pall settled over the
banter. Frowns appeared.
Then Trump was declared
the winner and the shock and
anger were palpable. Wow! I
hadn’t seen Democrats that
mad since we freed their
slaves.
But that was then. Today,
everybody should be mad as
hell about that stupid cop
who killed the unfortunate
George Floyd in Minneapolis
two weeks ago. All four offi-
cers involved are now behind
bars. Good.
But stupidity shouldn’t be-
get stupidity of another kind.
There are now movements
afoot to eliminate (or defund)
police departments. Good
griefl Have the dim bulbs who
came up with this nonsense
thought of the consequences?
Clearly not.
Speaking of dim bulbs, I
would offer a few words about
the occupants of the new
country of CHAZ (Capitol Hill
Autonomous Zone) in Wash-
ington state’s largest city. A
group of idealistic, ill-educat-
ed, skill-free young hoodlums
(some armed) have seized and
fenced off seven city blocks
and a police precinct building
in downtown Seattle. About
this totally illegal grab of city
property, Seattle’s clueless
mayor, a Ms. Jenny Durkan,
said recently the CHAZ re-
minded her of a “street festi-
val.”
Ladies — especially femi-
nists ——- please don’t get your
knickers in a knot. I don’t
care if Durkan is a giant
squid. My problem with her
is not that she’s a woman, but
that she’s a liberal, and as
all thinking observers should
know by now, almost every-
thing liberals touch even-
tually turns to excrement.
Seattle and CHAZ are perfect
examples.
Back to the other big story
at hand, the presidential
election. Despite, in general,
very low voter enthusiasm
for Biden, the DNC should
be pleased. Nationwide polls
show “Plugs” leading Trump
most everywhere. (Hey, the
polls were good for Hillary,
weren’t they?)
We do have some drama
here, though. Soon Biden will
have to reach into a dumpster
and pull out a running mate,
who, in all likelihood, will
succeed him early as presi-
dent should he win (perish
the thought.)
So hang in there, Demo-
crat voters. Joe Biden ain’t
much, but for what it’s worth,
you now have a candidate
who can hide his own Easter
eggs.
Robert E. Graham
Union
