An open letter to Representative Mike Kelly:

Dear Congressman Kelly,

I was first eligible to vote in a presidential election in 1976. I picked a winner — Jimmy Carter. I’ve never missed a presidential election since, sometimes choosing a winner, sometimes a loser and a few times voting for a third-party candidate that barely got a nod. I consider voting a privilege, a right and a duty as a U.S. citizen and never doubted that my vote counts — until this year.

Fearing COVID, I voted by mail in the primaries and in the election in November. I had legally applied, received and returned my ballot to the post office and was happy to receive an email acknowledgment from my county elections office that my vote would be counted among the votes — both in-person and by mail — of the thousands of voters in Butler County.

But on Nov. 23 the Butler Eagle reported that you, my own representative to Congress, had filed a lawsuit to challenge the validity of my vote and more than 100,000 of Butler County residents who submitted their legal ballots by mail, residents who you have been elected to represent.

Mr. Kelly, if you had doubts about the legality of Act 77, which allows any citizen of Pennsylvania to request a mail-in ballot, why didn’t you submit your legal challenge in 2019 when the law was enacted, or prior to the spring primaries, or at least before the general election?

Votes have been cast in good faith. Your candidate lost. And now you are attempting to change the outcome by suppressing votes and disenfranchising millions of Pennsylvania voters. Mr. Kelly, how can I trust that you will represent me and the people of Butler County when you are trying to take away my basic right as a citizen? Mr. Kelly, you cannot suppress my vote, steal my vote or cancel my vote. And most certainly, you cannot have my vote ever again.

Patricia Neubert,

Saxonburg