Letter: Money can buy lots of votes

"Voters are actually quite competent" [Opinion, Feb. 23] was more of the same right-wing blabber we have come to expect from conservative columnists: short on facts and long on fantasy. To assert that voters know better than the massive ad campaigns aimed at swaying their votes is absurd. It assumes that all politicians are delusional for seeking to get massive campaign contributions and that those who make massive contributions expect nothing in return. Corporations are donating millions, most likely, to assure that politicians respond with favorable legislation or lack of regulation.

Obviously those with a political ideology will not be swayed by a 30-second spot. However a large number of voters do not educate themselves about the issues and are swayed by these massive ad campaigns.

As for voter ID laws, these are simply modern versions of Jim Crow laws aimed at denying voting rights to minorities and the young. In five years of aggressive prosecutions, the Bush administration convicted a grand total of 86 people for voter fraud. Many were felons and parolees who didn't realize that they were ineligible to vote, not impostors seeking to sway an election.

Joel Herman, Melville