To the Editors:

I am writing to urge Bowdoin students, faculty and staff who vote in Maine to vote “No” on Tuesday’s Question 1 ballot initiative. This initiative would limit Mainers’ access to absentee and early voting, despite the fact that nearly 40 percent of Mainers currently vote absentee. There is no evidence that Maine’s current absentee voter policies have led to significant voter fraud. Voting absentee is critical for many members of our community, including students studying out of state, retired and homebound elders, folks who cannot get off of work because Election Day is still not a federal holiday and many others with a number of reasons for not wanting to or being able to vote in person. Restricting access to the ballot is one in a long list of authoritarian tactics to limit the rights of the people, and we must not let Maine become a place where only a lucky subset of our community can express their political opinion at the ballot box.

Eli Bundy

ebundy@bowdoin.edu

Eli Bundy is a member of the Class of 2027.