Unemployed workers could provide the extra manpower needed to ensure a trouble-free election in November.

The Great Depression-era New Deal programs put millions of unemployed Americans to work on public projects to build streets, bridges, schools, libraries, hospitals, sidewalks, zoos, community centers, post offices, city halls and parks. At that time, about 15 million Americans were unemployed. Today, about 30 million people are unemployed.

Why not use the unemployed in each state to help count mail-in ballots to help guarantee timely and accurate processing of ballots in November? States can start with the people currently receiving unemployment. Surely a portion of this group can be trained to count election ballots.

After the election, states can train that same group to weed out fraud in the areas of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. There will never be enough government workers to keep up with the sheer volume of criminals dedicated to defrauding the American government. Let’s use the unemployed to even the scale.

If waste is discovered in these important safety net programs, use the savings to reduce state tax revenue shortfalls or tackle other important projects like infrastructure.

MICHAEL ARTSON

Woodbridge