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0:41

This is But Why, a podcast for

0:43

curious kids from Vermont Public. I'm Jane

0:45

Lindholm. On this show, we

0:48

take questions from curious kids just like you

0:50

and we find answers. Today,

0:52

we're going to continue learning about

0:54

US federal elections on November 5th

0:57

this year. Registered voters

0:59

will cast votes for president

1:01

and vice president, senators, congressional

1:03

representatives, and many local offices.

1:06

Election season is often a time

1:09

when adults around us, not to

1:11

mention radio stations, TV stations, and

1:13

internet shows, seem to be

1:15

talking a lot about politics, political

1:18

candidates, political parties, and how we

1:20

all feel about the country. Sometimes

1:23

these conversations get kind of tense,

1:25

especially when people disagree. We

1:28

are definitely not getting tense or angry

1:30

in our episodes, and we're not talking

1:32

about the candidates or actually

1:34

even the issues. We're talking

1:37

about the process. Our

1:39

goal is to help you, and maybe

1:41

your adults too, understand how and why

1:43

we vote, and today, what

1:45

kinds of safeguards are in place to make

1:48

sure our voices are heard and our votes

1:50

are secure. We asked

1:52

University of Kentucky political scientist Bridget

1:54

King whether or not we can

1:56

be confident about US elections. There

1:59

are pro- processes among processes

2:01

among processes to ensure

2:04

the sanctity of our votes and the

2:06

sanctity of our ballots so that when

2:09

the outcomes are announced at the end of an

2:11

election, they truly reflect what

2:14

it is that citizens have marked on

2:16

their ballots and submitted. So

2:19

there is papers for chain of custody to sort

2:21

of see who touched the machine, who moved the

2:23

equipment, etc. Things are

2:25

sealed. There's usually

2:27

bipartisan teams who are working together,

2:29

so a Republican and a Democrat,

2:31

a representative from our two major

2:33

parties, along each step

2:36

of the process. Even poll workers,

2:38

oftentimes there is bipartisan requirements where you have

2:40

to have an equal number of Republicans and

2:42

Democrats in a polling location, right? So there

2:45

are layers upon layer of

2:47

processes that are in

2:50

place to ensure that when I or

2:52

you or anyone else goes to cast a

2:54

ballot, that that

2:57

ballot in the total is reflected

3:00

the way I marked it or

3:02

you marked it or anyone else marked it. Part

3:04

of Bridget King's job is actually to sit in

3:06

a polling place all day long on election day

3:08

and watch the voting. One of the things that

3:11

I love about my job is

3:13

that part of what I

3:15

do is interact regularly with

3:18

election officials. I've spent many an election day

3:20

sitting in a polling location from the time

3:22

it opened to the time it closed, just

3:24

sort of watching the process. That's

3:27

a cool thing about our elections in the

3:29

U.S. As long as you are peaceful and

3:31

don't interrupt and don't try to get someone

3:33

to vote the way you want them to,

3:35

you too can watch people vote

3:38

all day. There are opportunities for

3:40

the public to actively go and

3:42

watch the processes. So before

3:44

they send out the equipment, they test all

3:46

the machines. That testing

3:48

is generally accessible to the public where you

3:51

can watch. We thought that

3:53

was a pretty neat idea, that we could

3:55

see polling places and the machines that count

3:57

the ballots getting set up. So

3:59

we called up that

6:00

read each ballot and count the votes. Generally,

6:03

these machines are faster and more accurate

6:05

than people counting by hand. The

6:07

machines in South Burlington look kind

6:10

of like thin black printers. You

6:12

feed the paper ballot in on one side, and

6:15

it pops out on the other side. If

6:17

there's an issue with the ballot or someone

6:19

has written in a name that wasn't already

6:21

printed on it, it pops back

6:24

out the front so the poll workers know to take

6:26

a closer look. A lot

6:28

of the counting takes place on election day,

6:31

but since so many people vote in

6:33

advance now, some of

6:35

the counting with these machines happens

6:37

earlier to make it go quicker

6:39

on election day when everyone's eager to know the

6:41

results as soon as possible. That

6:44

early counting is what Holly is

6:46

calling pre-processing days. When

6:48

you do the votes that have

6:51

already been submitted to you, whether it's by mail

6:53

or people coming in and dropping them off or

6:55

people coming in and doing early voting here, and

6:58

you run them through the tabulators, you're not

7:00

then trying to check, what's

7:02

it look like so far? Who's ahead?

7:04

No, no, absolutely. And it's actually, there's

7:06

several different processes. So when the ballots

7:08

first come in, whether they come

7:10

through the mail or their hand delivered over the counter, we

7:13

have two folks in our office

7:15

check them to make sure that

7:17

they're sealed properly, the signature is

7:20

there, and then we enter

7:22

them into the election management system just as being

7:24

received. So we're not opening it up, we're not

7:26

looking at it, but if you wanna know at

7:28

midnight, did they get my ballot, you'll be able

7:31

to go onto my voter page and check. And

7:34

when they pre-process is the first time

7:36

that the actual signature envelope is opened.

7:39

And during that process where the signature

7:41

envelope is, they have

7:43

a checklist of matching the

7:45

name with the report. And

7:48

once we get through that and they say, okay, I have

7:50

these 32, then the

7:52

envelopes get flipped upside down so you don't

7:54

see anybody's name and you open and stack,

7:57

open and stack, open and stack, open and

7:59

stack. be

14:00

voting. How do you make sure that's not

14:03

happening? So the key to

14:05

that again is those people and processes.

14:07

We have one statewide

14:09

voter registration checklist and

14:12

so if you are registered to

14:14

vote in Burlington that is the

14:16

only place that you can show

14:18

up to vote and as soon

14:20

as you do vote in Burlington

14:23

you're checked off of

14:25

that checklist so that if you were

14:27

to, for instance, mail in a ballot

14:30

and then try to show up on election day

14:32

and cast a second ballot the clerk would say,

14:35

no I see that you've already voted.

14:38

So that's one of the fail-safes. Let's

14:41

look at another scenario. Let's

14:43

say that you move from one community

14:45

to the other. Well,

14:47

because we have that central voter

14:50

registration database your

14:53

clerk in the new community will alert the

14:55

clerk in the old community that you can

14:57

be taken off of that voter role to

14:59

be added to this one and would also

15:01

be able to look and see if, for

15:04

instance, you'd already mailed in a ballot in

15:06

your old community your clerk in your new

15:08

community would say, uh-uh. So

15:11

in order to get on

15:13

the voter checklist you

15:15

have to be a United States citizen to

15:17

vote in statewide elections although there are a

15:20

couple of towns and

15:22

cities in Vermont that allow all

15:24

residents to vote on just local

15:26

issues but to vote in

15:28

the statewide and federal elections you have to be

15:30

a United States citizen. And

15:32

when we say federal elections basically

15:35

that just means national elections, elections

15:37

for national office. So your senator,

15:39

your representatives

15:41

in the House of Representatives and the

15:43

person you want to vote for for

15:45

president those are all federal races because

15:47

they go to a national place where

15:49

they all come together versus state races

15:51

like your governor or your lieutenant governor

15:53

or your secretary of state. That's

15:56

right. Thank you for that clarification and

15:58

and we tend