Re: “Inslee will support bill to make lying by elected officials, candidates about election results punishable by law” [Jan. 6, Local News]:
I wholeheartedly support Gov. Jay Inslee’s endorsement of legislation that would make it a criminal offense for elected officials and candidates to lie about election results.
Of course, elected officials who are currently allowed to do this without suffering any real consequences will scream out that this legislation will be an infringement on their rights to free speech.
Given that we put our elected officials in positions of power, we must demand that these officials follow moral and civic codes of conduct by being honest with the people who elected them, which means that they should be held to a higher standard than the average citizen.
In my opinion, this proposed legislation will help do exactly that since, unfortunately, some of our least scrupulous elected leaders seem to have no qualms about abusing their power when they think doing so will help them politically.
All it takes is a few bad apples to spoil the bunch, and that is why this legislation is needed.
Some will argue that we can hold them accountable via the ballot box, but that only happens every two to four years and is quite frankly way too long to wait.
Steven R. Cook, Gig Harbor