To the Editor:

There are numerous questions about the election process in North Carolina. There are many of us who believe that the election process in North Carolina is fraught with fraud, collusion, and misrepresentation. We believe that in many counties every effort is being made to hide or sweep any indications of fraud, collusion, and misrepresentation under the rug and bury it!

Over the years I have made tens of thousands of decisions. Many of those decisions were made to put someone in harm’s way during war, those were never easy decisions. But among those tens of thousands of decisions there were a large number of decisions that were considered no-brainer decisions, a decision that took little to no thought to implement.

Our legislators have been presented with a number of no-brainer decisions when it comes to the election system within North Carolina. Three that I consider as no-brainers for the election process are:

1. Proof of citizenship when registering to vote in North Carolina is not a luxury, but an absolutely necessary requirement!

2. There should never be voter registration on the same day as an election. Voter registration must be stopped at a point that would allow the Boards of Election to properly verify an individual’s citizenship and place of residence. I believe that voter registration should be stopped 30 days prior to an election; primary, special, or general. Stopping voter registration at anything less than 15 days prior to an election should be unthinkable.

3. Voter identification at the polls is an absolute necessity. There is no better way to prove proper identification than the requirement to provide a photo identification card that has been issued by a government agency.

There are many within the North Carolina General Assembly and the public that have used just about every excuse on earth to stop requirements to make the North Carolina election system a model of integrity. We as citizens should be mindful that the election system used in North Carolina lacks the required checks and balances needed to insure that those and only those with a right to vote in North Carolina can do so.

We must ask your elected legislators in the North Carolina General Assembly to modernize North Carolina’s election process. That modernization can be started by implementing the above three no-brainer decisions. The implementation of these decisions would go a long way in making the election process of North Carolina a model of integrity for other states within the United States.

Ray Shamlin

Rocky Mount