League members urge
people to register to vote

The Glen Ellyn League of Women Voters encourages all eligible citizens to register to vote in the November general election. The deadline for registration by mail or in person is Oct. 7.

All U.S. citizens who will be 18 or older by Nov. 4 and who have been residents of their election precinct for at least 30 days are eligible to register and to vote. Two forms of identification with at least one showing a current address are needed to register in person. A valid Illinois driver’s license number or state ID is required if registering by mail.

Registration may be made in person at the Glen Ellyn Civic Center, 535 Duane St., Glen Ellyn, from 8:30 a.m. 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays.

Citizens also may register at the DuPage County Election Commission, 421 County Farm Road, Wheaton. Call (630) 407-5600 for hours.

Forms for mail-in registration may be obtained at www.elections.il.gov.

The League of Women Voters’ Web site, www.vote411.org, offers a wealth of voter information. It includes information on how to register, how to vote absentee and the locations of polling places. In addition, it provides information on candidates and issues.

Register now to ensure your eligibility to vote Nov. 4. Voting is your right and your responsibility.
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or endorse candidates or political parties. This information is offered as a service to the eligible voters of this community.

Dorothy Hess, voter service chair; Michelle Peterson and Shawn Fasules, co-presidents, Glen Ellyn League of Women Voters

Candidates would work
to eliminate pay-to-play

The undersigned Democratic candidates for DuPage County Board wholeheartedly oppose the unethical practice called “pay-to-play.” Pay-to-play is the concept that companies must first give campaign contributions to elected officials (“pay”) in order to get contracts from the government (“play”).

Pay-to-play is alive and well right here in DuPage County. You don’t have to look too hard to find the problem.

The information can be found by reviewing campaign contribution filings at the Illinois Election Commission and then looking through DuPage County records showing contract awards

Pay-to-play is in effect a “tax” that taxpayers are forced to pay so the elected officials in DuPage County can fill their campaign coffers with contributions.

It is detrimental to economical, efficient government and against the interests of DuPage County taxpayers. No-bid contracts give elected officials the opportunity to reward those companies who have contributed money to their campaigns, and companies seeking to do county work quickly learn how to make it happen.

If elected, we pledge to work to enact a county ordinance similar to HB824 that will eliminate pay-to-play for all elected county officials in DuPage County. This will benefit the taxpayers of the county not only by ensuring that county contracts are awarded based strictly on merit, not campaign contributions, but also by eliminating the “pay-to-play tax” that costs DuPage taxpayer dollars.

Rita Gonzalez and Rifat Sivisoglu, 1st District; Barbara Dahl and Max J. Havlick, 2nd District; Robert Brandt and Karol Sole, 3rd District; Dan Bailey and Richard L. Dunn, 4th District; Tony Michelassi, 5th District; and Dirk Enger, 6th District

Mail now delivered
in unsecured manner

Recently the U.S. Postal Service made some changes in the way it delivers our mail.
As a cost-saving measure, it has eliminated routes, extended others and taken away delivery vehicles, making many more walking routes in downtown Wheaton.

This means some letter carriers no longer have the benefit of a vehicle to store mail in until it is delivered to a large complex and placed in the individual’s secured mailbox.

Rather, a plastic tub (with a cardboard cover) of mail is dropped off early in the morning by a relay driver. This plastic tub then sits near the mailboxes in the lobby until later in the day when a letter carrier arrives on the premises to throw the mail into the mailboxes. The empty plastic tub is then left in the lobby until the next mail delivery day when the relay driver again drops off a filled tub and picks up the empty tub.

Calls to the post office to complain about this practice were completely unsatisfactory. We are told there is no way for the walking letter carrier to remove the tubs once they are empty and there is no other place to store them. So they have to stay on the premises until the driver can pick them up the following day.

This explanation is not acceptable. Why should we have to store post office equipment in our building lobby?

More importantly, the security of our mail is nonexistent! Mail dropped off in the lobby in a plastic tub, left there for hours, is totally unacceptable.

Anyone coming through the lobby has access to this mail. No security at all until hours later when the mail is placed in our locked mailboxes, which we then need a key to access.

Makes a great deal of sense — after the mail has laid around for hours, it is now in secure mailboxes. Complaints to the post office were met with little sympathy, as I was assured the plastic tub is appropriately marked (on the lift off cardboard lid) “Property of U.S. post office; do not touch!” For sure, that will stop everyone from going through the tub.

What kind of secure mail delivery is this? And who came up with this grand idea?

If the post office can’t deliver the mail and throw it (into the mailboxes) immediately, how about a secure, locked mail bag? The empty mail bag could easily be removed by a walking letter carrier once the mail has been thrown.

Or why not make use of the relay boxes located around the downtown area to store mail until it is ready to be thrown and also to store empty tubs and/or mail bags?

Whoever came up with this new delivery method needs to go back and think this through again. Cluttering our lobbies with the unattractive mail tubs and providing absolutely no security for our mail makes for one very bad idea.

Jack and Maddie Smith, Wheaton

Palin's position
not extremist at all

I am responding to the topics raised by Barbara Laing in her mean-spirited letter (“Extremist Sarah Palin is not ‘one of us,’” Sept. 11), an attempt to counter Sarah Palin’s general popularity.

Palin banned books. Nobody can name a single banned book, because none were. This, of course, did not stop a left-wing blog (dailykos.com) from fabricating a list. This smear tactic was revealed because several of the books on the “banned list” had not even been published at the time of the alleged book banning.

Palin is a hypocrite for being both a hunter and pro-life.  Equating animal life with human life is disturbing. Doing so makes Ms. Laing an extremist, not Sarah Palin. Nothing could be less hypocritical than a pro-life proponent carrying to birth a child with Down’s syndrome, as Ms. Palin has. As far as hunting is concerned, how does Ms. Laing think the native peoples of Alaska have survived for centuries and survive today?

Palin is for expanded oil drilling in Alaska but against conservation. Palin and Sen. McCain are for a collection of strategies to improve America’s energy policy. This will require conservation, ternative fuels and, yes, higher oil production. Even Sen. Obama has decided to face reality by recently supporting more offshore drilling.

Palin was inconsiderate and selfish to “parade” her pregnant daughter. On the contrary, Ms. Palin is a wonderfully supportive mother. It is arrogant to accuse any mother of five children, one with special needs, of selfishness. And, as far as anyone can tell, the pregnant daughter was thrilled to be present for her mom’s acceptance of the nomination of vice president of the United States.

Michael Claerhout, Glen Ellyn