I was dismayed by your Jan. 19 online headline “With voting rights bill doomed, King and Collins work to safeguard electoral vote counting.” The headline implies that what Sen. Angus King and Sen. Susan Collins are working for is essentially the same thing. But a careful reading of the article reveals that (per usual) Collins is working on a small fix to clarify how the Electoral College count is handled in Congress.

As King notes, that is not a substitute for the voting rights legislation, which Collins helped block from even moving forward to debate. Collins refused (again, per usual) to be interviewed about her position on voting rights but issued a statement attacking the bill.

She is certainly entitled to her views, but how does she justify not allowing a debate on the substance of the bill?

Your headline is, unfortunately, a great example of why Collins has managed to keep her reputation as a moderate and reasonable politician even as she sides again and again with the extremists in her party.

Janice Bailey
Portland