A recent editorial asks, “Should Oregon require people to vote?”

We might better ask, “How would you feel if your own carefully considered vote were sure to be rivaled by that of someone who ‘just punched something on the ballot’ to avoid being fined?”

Do we really want to coerce many such disinterested persons to vote (in reluctantly random ways perhaps), solely because they’re required to? Voting is a right and a privilege, and should be respected as such.

Some (let’s hope most) of us take our thinking and voting seriously, and hope others will, too. Compelling anyone to vote is hardly the way to nurture that responsibility.

Patricia O’Day

Bend