Online voting, Melville housing,  political cartoons, and police drones

Technology is here — for our voting, too

Most banking or consumer purchases are processed online today. Almost all global stock exchanges operate electronically. Every credit card transaction is electronic. We are moving toward a cashless economy and already have stores in which you pick up something and walk out the door with nary a card swipe. This is possible because the technology is essentially infallible.

Readers who want to resort to the old ways of voting are doing us a disservice [“Voting: Let’s return to old ‘technology,’ ” Letters, Aug. 16]. Triple-encryption online voting will be 100% secure and transparent.

It also will be substantially less costly and provide instantaneous results. It will enfranchise every eligible American. It will be tied to multiple databases so changes in voter status will be logged in real time.

One suspects that a move to online voting may be subjected to fear, uncertainty and doubt because it will significantly reduce the need for election workers.

Additionally, it will eliminate the means for nefarious individuals to subvert the will of the people. The path ahead is clear.

— William Binnie, Lake Grove

Makeover a good idea if it’s done right

“Melville Makeover” was the right article for the right time [LI Business, Aug. 13]. Long Island is a great place to live but has several problems, including housing, especially for our young adult children, and significant unrented office space.

Additionally, some five-days-a-week workers are reluctant to work in offices with long commutes. If carefully planned, an appropriate mix of low- and medium-priced housing would attract young folks to live in Melville and to work for businesses within walking or biking distance.

Maxess Road in Melville is an ideal location for such a project. On a typical Wednesday midafternoon, the huge Huntington Quadrangle parking lot is mostly empty. If the central section of this roughly 1.2-mile Maxess Road were closed, a small town square could be created with condo housing and a few small public shops.

It would be an ideal place to live. Planning is the key.

— Bill Domjan, Melville

Political cartoons must be accurate

There is a difference between showing both sides of an issue and using misinformation to do so. On Aug. 19, two political cartoons were, at the least, irresponsible, and, at most, dishonest [Opinion, Cartoon Roundup].

In the Gary Varvel cartoon, we have a mind reader on the stand with Special Counsel Jack Smith demanding to know what former President Donald Trump was thinking, with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan looking on.

There is no factual basis to assert, even in a political cartoon, that Trump is on trial for what he was “thinking.” This even goes beyond the Trump team’s bogus claim that this is a “free speech” issue. I have no problem with showing both sides, but not falsehoods.

In the Tom Stiglich cartoon, we see Trump in a jail cell claiming he is there because he was going to win the 2024 presidential election. This flies in the face of Trump’s being charged with legitimate serious allegations. Save the MAGA propaganda for right-wing outlets. Even cartoonists need to stick to the facts.

— Patrick Flynn, Ridge

Political cartoons are meant to express diverse views, but they should be well thought out and not promote false narratives. The cartoons by Tom Stiglich and Gary Varvel made a mockery of that concept.

Trying to frame the Trump indictments and possible prison time as being politically driven is an injustice. Will these cartoonists be defending Rep. George Santos next? How about Benedict Arnold? Maybe John Gotti? Trump is charged with multiple felonies. He is being prosecuted for them, not for his “thoughts” and running for office.

The media has a responsibility to promote different points of view, but that doesn’t include fabrications.

— Russell Alexander, Brentwood

Who’s turning the tables on whom?

This use of police drones may very well be intrusive surveillance resulting in civil rights abuses [“Official drone use needs close look,” Editorial, Aug. 24].

Homeowners, though, are facing a similar abusive invasion of privacy from their neighbors.

I’m referring to the proliferation of easy-to-install and relatively inexpensive wide-angle-view security cameras. My next-door neighbor has installed such a camera that records my backyard activities, including those by my swimming pool.

To block her camera’s view of my backyard and pool, I put up tarps attached to poles.

This same neighbor called and reported our tarps to the Town of Hempstead Building Department, which has deemed our poles and tarps a building code violation. How about that?

— Pamela Kay, East Meadow