BALLOT: Might constitute fraud

When I sat down at the booth to mark my ballot on the Coeur d'Alene School District levy Tuesday I was startled to read that if I voted NO on Option 1, I was not to vote at all on Option 2.

Where in American history does one's NO vote on an issue cancel one's right to vote YES or NO on another issue, however related the two issues may be?

So I read in The Press that Superintendent Bauman says "Our intent was if a no vote was cast on Option 1, it would also be no on Option 2." There you have it. The Superintendent of the Coeur d'Alene School District declares that "our intent" overrides the voters' intent.

This is a stunning and outrageous usurpation of voter rights to mark their ballots as THEY SO CHOOSE. It may well constitute election fraud. This gross illegitimacy apparently stems from the offices of those in charge of our taxpayer funded education system. Whether it represents ignorance, arrogance or carelessness - or all three - is immaterial. It is a direct assault on voter rights by local government officials.

To allow these results to stand is to approve crookedness in government.

JAMES J. HILL

Hayden Lake