Where have time limits, deadlines and standards gone?

Lets say you are a contestant in a race posted to begin at 10 am. You arrive, huffing and puffing, at 10:05.

Should the judges should stop the race and start it over for your convenience?

Maybe your teacher has posted an exam start time as 1 pm when the door to the exam room will be locked.

You arrive at 1:15 and pound on the door to get in disturbing the other students.

Or maybe your flight has been scheduled, to depart at 5 pm. You arrive at 5:15 expecting the flight to return for you despite other passengers missing their connections.

That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

WE CAN AGREE this is a matter of personal responsibility. Each of us has a full year between election days to register to vote.

Why must millions of responsible Americans look the other way while some may be allowed late registration? Or skip deadlines? Or gain extensions for postmarked mail received after Election Day? Or excuse a naturalized citizen for insufficient ability to read and understand the rules?

Any American who has graduated from high school or been naturalized has learned that voting is a civic responsibility. If a citizen disenfranchises himself for any reason, is it the government’s responsibility to prod him into voting? Not at all.

LET THE CARDS fall where they may.

Low information voters are just as responsible as you and I to follow the rules.

Let politicians who fear losing an election become more proactive in getting out the legitimate vote. Don’t try to pad and inflate the vote through flooding the system with expansive, unsolicited voting forms.

The votes can not possibly be counted on a timely basis. And by placing an unfair, unrealistic burden on the post office, it causes unreasonable delays to the American people in getting accurate results of their election.

Richard Little, Lexington