LETTERS TO THE
E DITOR Evers used veto power to restrict ATV/UTV rights
To the editor: Most people are not aware of recent changes in the laws regarding ATV/ UTVs.
It is now unlawful for passengers to ride on an ATV/UTV unless it was designed and manufactured for a passenger.
No aftermarket seats are legal. All ATVs that have a bolted-on seat for the second passenger are now illegal.
There are limited manufacturers that make two-person ATVs.
This does not apply if you are on your own private property. This also does not apply to any first responders, etc. that need to use an ATV/UTV to help someone in an emergency.
-- 2019 Wisconsin Act 183, sections 12 and 25. (2019 Senate Bill 583).
I dug into this and found some very interesting facts. I contacted the Wisconsin ATV Association as I heard they were pushing the bill. This is correct but please read on.
I asked for the data for accidents for ATVs that had two riders on them. They gave me a person in the DNR to contact. The person did send me the data. However, there were no statistics that showed if the accidents involved one or two people on an ATV. I contacted the same person and he said they do not record that data.
So there is no data in Wisconsin to support that riding double on an ATV causes accidents.
So why did the law change to specifically restrict two people riding on an ATV?
Democratic Gov Tony Evers partial veto! Yes, you read that correct. Evers used his partial veto to change the law. Now you naysayers are going to ask how do you know that to be true. I have a copy of the letter Evers sent to the Senate explaining his changes dated March 3, 2020. Quote: “The safe transportation of passengers, regardless of location, is essential to the prevention of injuries and fatalities associated with all-terrain and utility terrain vehicle use.”
One person changed the law, but in the letter nowhere does Evers state any facts or statistics to back his veto up. That’s because there aren’t any statistics for the state of Wisconsin.
I suggested to the person at the DNR to get the aftermarket seats DOT certifi ed so they could become legal. He said it was a good suggestion and would pass it on.
I had to sell my four-wheeler as I am not buying a second one and a trailer to haul two and I am not spending $14,000 to $20,000 on a UTV or $12,000 to $15,000 for a 2-up ATV.
Thank you Democrat Evers for taking my recreation away.
Here is another interesting fact in the law change. The UTV max width is now 65 inches. Generally an ATV is around 48 inches wide. As most of you who have ridden on trails know, they are not always extremely wide. So, now instead of two 48-inch machines meeting, you now have 65-inch machines coming down the trail at each other. Think about that.
For those of you still wanting to ride, be careful on the trails and enjoy yourself. Be careful when you meet these oversized UTVs.
James Hebda
formerly of Colby and Dorchester
Voter fraud is a problem, despite what we’re told
To the editor: Democrats and the media keep repeating to us that voter fraud is rare and there are no problems with voting by mail. If they say this often enough, people may be brainwashed into believing it. However, there are problems that negate people’s votes we’re not being told about.
California election officials reportedly rejected more than 100,000 mail-in ballots from the March primary election. Of these, 27,525 were rejected for signature issues.
In New Jersey, a sitting city council member, a councilman-elect, and two others were charged with multiple counts of voter fraud. Ballots bearing names of residents who said they didn’t vote and never saw their ballot were delivered and counted.
A West Virginia mailman was charged with voter fraud, admitting changing mail-in ballot requests’ party affiliation.
Former Pennsylvania Rep. Michael Myers (D) was indicted on multiple counts, including conspiracy to violate voting rights by fraudulently stuffing ballot boxes, bribery of an election official, falsification of records, voting more than once in a federal election, and obstruction of justice. It took six weeks to declare a winner in a Democrat primary in New York. Candidates were only about 3,000 votes apart, but 12,000 of 60,000 mail-in ballots (20 percent) were disqualified. A lawsuit also states election officials mailed out around 34,000 ballots only one day before the election.
State Superior Court Judge Ernest Caposela ruled a new election must be held in November for a Paterson City Council seat in New Jersey after the winner of the race and an elected official were charged with voter fraud.
Two Washington Post reporters determined that 17,800 non-U.S. citizens voted in the 2008 election, just in North Carolina, possibly tipping their electoral votes. They also cited that 1 in 16 non-citizens in the U.S. voted in the 2008 election. Nearly 1,000,000 illegal votes may have been cast.
In an ongoing investigation, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations office in Raleigh, North Carolina, charged 19 more illegal aliens with illegally voting in the 2016 presidential election.
A Democrat political operative in New Jersey admitted to the New York Post that for decades he changed votes in a number of races. He also trained 20 operatives in other states. This is just a sample. Voter fraud and mail-in voting problems are going unreported. In the past, many Democrats were warning of the dangers of mailin voting, but are now pushing for this. Many countries around the world have banned mail-in voting because of the obvious and wide-open opportunities for voter fraud.
Absentee ballots have built-in protections in most states, but voting in person ensures your vote will count.
Tim Kapfhamer
Colby
Rushing a COVID vaccine is dangerous, reckless
To the editor: Last week, President Trump announced the Food and Drug Administration had approved the use of convalescent plasma for treating patients with COVID-19, stating that it cut mortality rates by 35 percent. The Center for Disease Control issued a statement saying people exposed to COVID-19 did not need to be tested if they do not have symptoms. Both statements were wrong and had to be corrected, and both statements decreased the credibility of agencies we depend on for unbiased, scientific information.
The agencies denied any political pressure, but documents show heavy infl uence on the CDC by the Trump campaign, and the FDA approval came less than a day following a tweet by Trump suggesting “deep state operatives in the FDA were slowing drug development.”
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn fired agency spokeswoman Emily Miller over the incident. She had been on the job for only 11 days with no medical background, but is a Republican political operative that has expressed skepticism about the coronavirus.
Hahn had earlier authorized the emergency use of two malaria drugs, then withdrew approval when the drugs were shown to be potentially harmful and not helpful. Both had been pushed for approval by Trump. With 190,000 deaths due to COVID-19, many due to his own bungling, Trump is desperate for some good news before Election Day. He has repeatedly said the coronavirus “will simply disappear,” but it continues to kill over a thousand people a day. His urgency has placed the importance of his own re-election above the job of guaranteeing a methodical process to develop a reliable vaccine.
People will not take the vaccine if they do not trust the process. Pressuring agencies to relax restrictions and rush approvals of medication and vaccines does not instill trust. Narcissistic behavior is not leadership and, in this case, it is dangerous.
Mary Luchterhand Unity
NOTABLE Q UOTE “
I’ve been waiting to be back in school because being at home with a lot of free time and doing things over and over wasn’t fun.”
Abbotsford senior Angel Diaz, discussing last week’s return to in-person school
