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Consider casting absentee ballots at courthouse drop box THUMBS SIDEWAYS: In late July, Lyon County Auditor/Treasurer E.J. Moberg announced the placement of a drop box for absentee election ballots in the lobby of the courthouse in Marshall. At the time, Moberg told the Independent that the box would help make it easier for voters to participate in elections, while following social distancing. Little did he know at the time, that ballot box may play a bigger role in the November general election. The Trump administration’s recent attempt to slow down the U.S. mail system by ...

Now is not the time to start curtailing USPS operations

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. So goes the United States Postal Service’s motto. No one said anything about lack of funding. President Donald Trump admitted in an interview last week that he is withholding funds available to the USPS, in order to limit the agency’s ability to handle tens of millions of mailed-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election, to thwart what he claims is the Left’s push for universal mail-in voting. On Monday, during stops in Minnesota and Wisconsin, he said he is ...

If numbers keep rising will caution matter?

We have, in general, given the benefit of the doubt to those who are siding with caution in the battle against COVID-19. Health experts and political leaders, such as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are doing the best they can to help us weather the storm. We believe they are acting with sincerity and concern. But it is difficult sometimes to absorb the view of the devastation that anti-COVID measures have had on the rest of life. Especially as the same experts who urge caution have said that for most people the virus causes only mild symptoms that run their course and are done. In a ...

Don’t mess with Census schedule

Giving Americans a month less to respond to the 2020 Census may be the most ridiculous proposal to come out of Washington this year. The idea should be discarded. Original plans for the Census called for an Oct. 31 deadline for people to respond to it with information about themselves and their families. But Census Bureau officials reportedly want to change that to Sept. 30. During this, of all years, people ought to be given more time to comply with government mandates, not less. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 epidemic has slowed collection of Census data. Moving the deadline ...

Sports: High School League has solid game plan

The Minnesota State High School League plan to modify the high school sports schedule for the coming academic year balances the need for health safety and the need to nurture young people with some normalcy in these pandemic times. Shifting so-called “high risk” pandemic-spread activities of football and volleyball to the spring makes sense given the close contact required in those sports. Keeping soccer, tennis and cross country in the fall with limits on the number of teams and number of games and matches is a good way to minimize the risk. Young people get the COVID-19 virus ...

Don’t fall for internet hoodwinkers

Thank heaven for those gullible Americans. Let’s hope they never wise up. If they do, we’re out of jobs. One wonders whether that thought crosses the minds of Russian disinformation specialists who have had so much success sowing dissent in the United States. If not, it should.We Americans seem to be determined to allow internet liars from Moscow and other U.S. foes to manipulate us. Just a few days ago, a website linked to the Kremlin put out a false report that five Ukrainians died after taking a COVID-19 vaccine made in the United States. Media outlets in Russia picked up on ...