Havenwood describes itself as “Concord’s Finest Retirement Community.” It is home to our seniors who, after a full life, now seek a comforting, secure and safe environment where a range of levels of care is available.
But to Republicans it is something else: a hotbed of voting fraud. There must be a number of bad hombres living there – why else would the Republican Party designate a thug to serve as a “a poll watcher” with the singular purpose of challenging the rights of seniors to vote because they allegedly did not have appropriate photo identification?
The moderator graciously described the unnamed Republican’s conduct as being “overzealous” (Monitor Forum, July 22) – but it is something deeper: disgusting, reprehensible, an affront to democracy, sheer lunacy are phrases that quickly come to mind, never mind outright stupidity.
The “overzealous” one was either poorly trained by the GOP or not trained at all because it is difficult to understand the basis of his challenge: The people living at Havenwood who were seeking to vote actually were not living there and were secretly bused in from Massachusetts for the special election?
The right to vote is fundamental, and Republican efforts to suppress it have now spread from college campuses to senior housing: get angry and vote.
The next vote we lose may be your grandmother’s.
STEVEN M. GORDON
Hopkinton