[0:07] room if you or you know somebody can serve I

[0:28] so um here's one of my elected classes

[0:33] for everything

[0:41] I don't think that this process is going to take place before the gubernatorial

[0:45] election

[0:50] do I I feel like this will be rolled out in

[0:54] phases where it won't empty implemented Statewide yes

[1:17] the warehouse technicians

[1:21] when the legislative orders came in and said we're oriented

[1:49] so we

[1:57] is that

[2:00] what what could happen

[2:07] to

[2:10] people

[2:15] are going to have to continue around people now

[2:18] and

[2:45] foreign [Music]

[2:49] States

[2:54] hold on I'm connected you're seeing that firsthand on the news

[3:00] right now [Music]

[3:01] um

[3:08] we have so many controls like I said in place around our elections so many

[3:12] checks and balances so many audits that we do leading up to our election and

[3:18] then afterwards and with the help of the board and the cooperation with our ROV

[3:26] we don't have problems we're extremely transparent and I'm a thousand percent

[3:31] about voter integrity and voter transparency

[3:36] but I really think that we're going to have some serious problems around paper

[3:39] ballots we live in Southern Louisiana we deal with humidity and those of you that

[3:45] have worked in an office you know what happens when paper is exposed to

[3:49] humidity and when it's in a printer or when it's in a fax machine what happens

[3:54] it's going to jam so what's going to happen on a Precinct

[3:58] level when that ballot jams either printing out your Ballot or more

[4:04] importantly what's going to happen when that ballot that you just hand marked

[4:08] you're putting the scanner and it jams somebody's going to have to unjam it and

[4:13] it's going to be a commissioner and you all know somebody in here that if they

[4:18] saw the way Gail voted they would be talking about it at church Sunday

[4:22] morning they would

[4:27] but let me take it a step further nobody reads instructions

[4:34] we deal with that when we're processing the absentee ballots and it tells you to

[4:40] fill in the dot completely or it tells you only make one selection or for the

[4:47] Abita Alderman's race they was to select five well they were selecting six and

[4:53] seven

[4:55] sometimes they will put a check or an X instead of circling it sometimes they

[5:01] will write not this one and draw a line to who they want to to vote for

[5:07] sometimes they'll even have their own commentary about what they think of the

[5:10] candidate on the ballot and and they let us know

[5:15] um so when that happens when we're

[5:18] processing those ballots the board has to adjudicate it because

[5:23] the scanner kicks it out because there's marks on that ballot on in areas where

[5:29] there shouldn't be marks and the scanner picks it up so the board all five of us

[5:34] and the board consists of the register of voter the governor appointee which is

[5:39] Gail a representative from DPAC a representative from rpac and myself all

[5:44] five of us have to agree what that voter's intention was yes they raced it

[5:50] it's still showing a little bit of of Mark on it but this circle is really

[5:55] really dark so we we can all agree on what their intent is especially if they

[5:59] draw a line and say no this one okay but what if they do that on a Precinct

[6:05] level it's going to kick it out

[6:09] what is the adjudication process on a Precinct level

[6:13] and the secrecy of your ballot I really feel is going to be compromised

[6:20] so how is that going to be adjudicated on a Precinct level I have no idea

[6:25] so if you're talking about 141 000 voters that voted in a presidential

[6:31] election in person and take that plus the absentee ballots

[6:37] times that by three pages that's how many pieces of paper we're

[6:42] going to be dealing with on Election Day now let me let me explain this to you

[6:47] whatever Baton Rouge decides and whatever they decide is our election

[6:53] process Johnny Crane and I are going to be charged with implementing that we're

[6:59] going to be champions of this process and we're going to lead the rest of the

[7:03] state with the way that we do it because Johnny Crane and I share the same I.T

[7:07] person from the secretary of state so we get it right

[7:14] but that's not gonna you know be the case

[7:17] I'm very concerned about the direction that our process is going and the other

[7:23] part that is very concerning is that I've spoken to so many representatives

[7:27] about this and they totally did not understand what

[7:31] they voted on they go no this hadn't been decided yet

[7:35] oh yes it is the governor's already signed it this went in effect in 2021.

[7:42] Gail has spoken to several representatives and this isn't a

[7:46] political party issue this is our Democratic issue this is going to affect

[7:52] all of us and we need to be aware of the security

[7:57] the accuracy of our elections and it's not about how fast we're getting the

[8:03] results in it's about the accuracy of the results that we're getting in

[8:08] again you got anything you want to add

[8:20] Melissa is 100 correct when she said accuracy is what it's all about this uh

[8:27] last election we were short one ballot

[8:33] and we know exactly how many we need this is with the mail-in ballots and we

[8:40] searched and searched and searched and we found the one ballot before we run

[8:48] our ballots through a scanner we put them in groups of 50. somebody hand

[8:53] counts 50 ballots we open them they go through the scanner one of the stacks

[8:59] had 51 in it and it was near the end of three large cases

[9:07] of ballots and you know we don't leave we know that that's what we have to do

[9:18] we had to implement some emergency procedures with the way that we're

[9:23] processing things and they changed the law to allow parishes that if you

[9:27] received over 5 000 absentee mail-in ballot you could start prepping those

[9:33] ballots the day before and what we mean by that is that we have a list of

[9:38] everyone that's turned in an absentee ballot so we're checking off to make

[9:43] sure we have every ballot in hand for every person's name that's on the list

[9:48] then we are removing the affidavit separating the affidavit that's on the

[9:54] envelope we're never opening the envelope because we can't tabulate votes

[9:57] until election day so we're grouping these envelopes in 50

[10:03] and we're double checking everything and we were sharp one before and this was

[10:08] the day before and we recounted um Gail's been there with me on Election

[10:13] night and there was a a stack of envelopes that

[10:19] accidentally got put in the trash and I was furious and I made them rescan

[10:26] all of the ballots we were still short and I looked at Gail and you could have

[10:30] heard a pin drop because I was Furious I dumped all the bags of trash out in the

[10:35] middle of the misdemeanor courtroom and sat on the floor everybody else followed

[10:39] suit and we found them they were just there was yeah you were there

[10:45] Daryl was there so we account for everything we dot our eyes and we cross

[10:51] our T's

[10:54] I I don't know how this is going to work I don't know

[10:59] um Donnie do you have anything you'd like

[11:01] to add

[11:14] thank y'all I'm glad to be here Melissa does a great job if it Saint Tammany

[11:19] actually she takes the role of throughout the state of when something

[11:26] is implemented or something needs to be done they call on Saint Tammany and I'm

[11:31] fortunate enough Washington we share the same people that work with both of us

[11:35] but my parents and we're not quite fifty thousand we have the same issues we have

[11:41] the same issues the county we had same issues with commissioners

[11:45] my staff about half of them had to work as Commissioners especially at 5 30 in

[11:52] the morning when you get phone calls that this commissioner couldn't show up

[11:55] or this one's got the flu and we're trying to send them all over the parish

[11:59] so it is a it is a big issue that we have now me and her both and all the

[12:06] clerks in the in the state whatever the Secretary of State or whatever they give

[12:11] us to run we're going to do it to the best of our ability I want to assure you

[12:15] of that but before we get out there and get

[12:19] something that we know is needs to be fixed we need to get it right the first

[12:23] time and not and so we're trying um to sometimes you don't understand

[12:29] what we go through in election uh day or election cycle or that night and that's

[12:36] what we're just trying to point out about how the Commissioners are and

[12:40] what's going to happen that night and what's going to happen with paper

[12:42] ballots one of them told me he said you mean people don't put a circle into I

[12:47] said you ought to see what's wrote on there you ought to see we see it we go

[12:51] through them now my Parish we used to when I was elected clerk in 2012 at six

[12:57] o'clock we got there by eight o'clock we had the early votes counted

[13:01] ready to go on a thing now it was 1 30 we had to be there and

[13:07] we got through it a quarter to eight we had right at uh

[13:12] 870 something early votes we didn't quite have enough to to do it the day

[13:17] before but it's the same thing and when we're running the election and we're

[13:22] having to go and people are calling Mr Crane so and so is this at the fire

[13:26] station and and this is going on we're locked up in a room counting boats so

[13:32] it's kind of uh you come where's the clerk at well we're part of the ones so

[13:37] it takes away from us too but in my Parish

[13:41] probably a third of my precincts are in a fire station I got to be I'm riding

[13:46] around on Friday for a Saturday election make sure the fire trucks pulled out and

[13:51] I'm riding around making sure we've thrown uh uh the stuff on the floor so

[13:55] the oil I'm not but that's where we vote now you imagine with paper ballots

[14:01] us trying to make sure that that they stay and they're able to be scanned

[14:07] I'm not against an audit Trail and and neither is Melissa we're not against

[14:12] that but there's machines out there you can take a piece of paper and stick it

[14:15] in there and that machine will tell you who you voted for you look at it and

[14:20] that's what you got you hit submit it votes goes in a lock box and it's locked

[14:25] their stuff out there is what we're trying to say is what we're trying to

[14:30] get our legislation and our secretary of state to look at and without Melissa

[14:38] doing what she does I don't know look I'm in I've got her coming to my Parish

[14:43] in January to speak because it isn't an issue but it's an issue that everybody

[14:49] needs to be aware of now if y'all tell us y'all want paper ballots guess what

[14:54] we're going to be the first ones out there doing the best we can with them so

[14:58] but I just want to say what you're saying we have the same issues in our

[15:02] small Parish we have the same thing and we just asked to take a look if we're

[15:07] going to wait till after the governor's race or we're going to wait a year let's

[15:11] take a look at what's best for the people of Louisiana let's take a look

[15:15] when Saturday at 12 o'clock Saturday night all our results are in we're not

[15:22] sitting there waiting on somebody to drop something off we're not sitting

[15:26] there in our ballots to get a mail-in ballots you've got to ask for it ahead

[15:29] of time so we know who sent a mail in ballot and we know who's who sent it in

[15:35] to vote and that day on the precinct register we've got they voted by mail we

[15:41] know that Louisiana we may be down on some things but in elections we're at

[15:46] the top and so make sure y'all kind of

[15:57] are you connected to the machines that we currently have we would rank first or

[16:01] second in the nation and you all know that we don't ever

[16:06] would live in our country but we do lead our country in our

[16:11] elections um you know going back talking about

[16:14] fire stations we don't control thermostats in any of our precincts we

[16:18] have precincts in St Tammany that there's no air and heat in the precinct

[16:23] and when you walk into these precincts the condensation is coming down the

[16:29] windows it's on the floors we're trying to to mop things up to make sure no one

[16:33] Falls and you can just feel it in the air the AC or the heater kicks on at a

[16:39] certain time and then the afternoon it kicks off and then we're dealing with

[16:42] the condensation because our polls are open till 8 pm

[16:46] so there's a lot of elements and we still have neighboring parishes that are

[16:51] still dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes and they're conducting their

[16:57] elections intense and have porta potties and FYI Somebody went into a porta potty

[17:04] and there was a water moccasin in the porta potty so I mean can you

[17:10] you know I would be done um

[17:13] so those are the challenges that we're facing and I I welcome anybody to if you

[17:21] want to come to my office I have been hosting meetings

[17:25] where I give you behind the scene chore A to Z of how the election starts

[17:31] how we secure our machines and how they're locked and programmed to what

[17:36] happens on Election Day and election night and I've had all different kinds

[17:41] of Civic groups political groups come and

[17:45] just call me and say hey I'd like my group to come because I'm wanting to

[17:50] debunk the conspiracy theories okay yes ma'am

[17:57] because our machines are not connected to the internet

[18:01] okay they're not connected to the internet in any way shape or form and

[18:06] the machines that we have are like pre-cell phone age

[18:11] there they were purchased Johnny like in 94 92 something like that

[18:18] they're old and that's why we need new machines because the parts are almost

[18:23] impossible to find we're having to gingerly handle them and make sure that

[18:29] they're not being banged around and people aren't running them through

[18:33] gravel to get them from the Draymond truck into the precinct so there's a lot

[18:38] of different things you know that we are trying to contend to keep these machines

[18:42] going I want to say um

[18:47] I did meet with Larry Freeman who is our representative here in Abita Springs and

[18:53] while he was sociable with me you know he was very personable

[18:59] he is worried about himself politically and I asked him you know I said

[19:07] sometimes you have to do the right thing and not what's going to help you

[19:12] politically and you know I mean he he smiled at me

[19:16] but I invited him as I know Melissa has done other Representatives I invited him

[19:22] to come sit with us and watch the process because a lot of times our our

[19:27] legislators they just skim a bill

[19:32] they don't really know and I'm I'm saying this they don't really know the

[19:38] all the bits and pieces and parts that it takes to make something work

[19:43] so that's what's frustrating for me when I'm sitting there and I hear what's

[19:49] happening and I know that these people are our

[19:55] clueless in the most complementary of ways

[20:00] you know but um I would suggest

[20:06] that you tell your friends and your family what we're going to be seeing

[20:10] here if if this bill is not amended and it can be amended and that's what I'm

[20:17] trying to do I have a meeting December 5th with a state senator McMath and Beth

[20:25] Mizell and I you know I don't know if they're going to pay attention to me or

[20:29] not but I'd go sit with my paperwork and I do know what I'm talking about I've

[20:34] been doing this long enough now so that's what I would hope that if you

[20:39] know if you understand if you have an open mind and you see that we don't have

[20:44] a problem we're trying to fix a problem we don't have please do something about

[20:49] it just don't sit and think well this is what I'm going to have to deal with let

[20:55] them hear your voices even though they might not be apt to amend the law they

[21:01] don't like hearing from us all the time either

[21:04] you know and we we know that we we're very vocal in this area I'm

[21:09] looking at Stuart because he's the most vocal person in Abita

[21:14] but um I want to if you have any questions to anybody have any questions

[21:20] okay come up here [Music]

[21:26] in my mind the accuracy issue is very top priority but how much time do you

[21:32] anticipate that this system will increase the amount of time to vote

[21:37] whereas some people may just say okay I'm not waiting anymore I mean that's a

[21:41] concern as well correct as far as

[21:46] so like I mentioned earlier we don't have a voter registration problem we

[21:51] turn out problem and we have long lines as it is on big elections Tuesday we had

[21:58] some precincts that had really long lines because everybody was Voting which

[22:02] was great we don't want to disenfranchise our

[22:05] voters when they show up and they go oh my gosh

[22:08] look how long this line is and then you saw where we had eight Constitutional

[22:13] Amendments well we unfortunately we have people that don't know

[22:18] how they're going to vote on the Constitutional Amendments and they wait

[22:21] until they get into the booth to read it and then make a decision okay

[22:26] so if we have these little stations where they're hand marking the ballots

[22:31] they're going to stand there and they're going to read it which is going to take

[22:36] up stations for people to be able to move through the line

[22:41] I'm concerned it's going to promote longer lines I don't want anybody to

[22:46] think that the clerks are against this because it's going to cause more work

[22:51] for us because if the clerks were worried about too much work we wouldn't

[22:56] be clerks to begin with because we work hard okay

[23:00] it has nothing to do with that you elected me to be your Clerk and I am

[23:05] the chief elections commissioner for this parish and I feel responsible and

[23:09] obligated to let you know what's coming down the pike because you all know that

[23:14] if you'd walk into a Precinct and you hadn't heard me talk about this and

[23:19] somebody hands you a ballot you're going to go what is this

[23:22] and then my phone's going to be blowing up

[23:25] wanting to know how come nobody told me when did this happen

[23:31] and why wasn't the public notified the reaction that I've gotten from you

[23:35] tonight is the same reaction that I've gotten in front of every group that I've

[23:39] spoken to you're not hearing this about on the

[23:43] news you're not hearing this in the newspaper you're not even hearing this

[23:47] well you're hearing it some from the people that are wanting the hand marked

[23:52] Hand counted paper ballots because they're touting a conspiracy theory you

[23:56] know they're touting they had someone do a report

[24:00] and you all know that you can run a report and do statistics with algorithms

[24:05] and you can manipulate that right well they're showing that there's always a

[24:10] spike in voter registration before presidential election and then there's a

[24:14] decline well that's like that after every

[24:18] winner and every summer we clean up the rolls that's a normal cycle but that's

[24:24] the frustrating part is that people are only telling you half truths

[24:29] and because they're only telling you half truths people are going well then

[24:33] that must be true because it's on the internet

[24:35] we have so many people since the 2020 presidential elections that's YouTube

[24:40] certified it blows my mind

[24:45] get the facts ask the questions

[24:51] Liz come up you have to I'm sorry

[25:02] What specifically can we do to prevent this from happening

[25:10] so right now if you feel passionate about anything I've shared with you

[25:15] please contact your representatives because the only way that we can change

[25:20] what's happening is for this bill to be amended

[25:29] oh you look good so I have a question so the electorate

[25:33] is getting younger and Because unless you're over 65 you can't vote by mail

[25:38] right so you you know

[25:48] you're just gonna be working out of town my point is is that you're going to

[25:53] start getting more and more of these ballots that have to be done on Election

[25:57] Day because that's the only time they can vote or early voting but they're

[26:01] going to have to vote in person so this problem you're having is going to

[26:05] continue to increase you know the quantity we're all dying off sorry but

[26:09] you know there's a lot of young folks who are very active want to vote give a

[26:13] damn and so your problem is going to get worse anything working on that side of

[26:16] the legislature

[26:24] uh I have a question with regard to the problem with paper ballots I can see how

[26:29] much of a problem it is but is the problem with the election day paper

[26:34] ballots or the uh in advance uh vote by mail because I really like the concept

[26:41] of voting by mail and it seems like if they gave you more time or did some

[26:46] other tweet to it that might be okay whereas you can't fix fire stations and

[26:51] whatnot and for the day by uh on the day paper ballots

[27:01] that means that we're going to have to start prepping the ballots more than one

[27:06] day in advance and we did that for the presidential election we started I think

[27:10] three days three days ahead of the election we were prepping ballots

[27:15] and preparing for that and on Election Day we scanned all of those ballots on

[27:21] Election Day because the law says we cannot start tabulating until election

[27:25] day now other states they actually start scanning those ballots weeks before the

[27:32] election because they are all paper ballot state

[27:38] yeah but I mean you want to talk about opening yourself

[27:42] up for fraud

[27:48] is one other one other question is uh can what you're looking for

[27:52] Commissioners can people are running for office be Commissioners and what are the

[27:56] limit so could they do the tax selections or

[28:00] something like that that are in between the

[28:03] so so it's only the specific elections that they're on the ballot for that they

[28:07] can't be if you decide not to run you can be a

[28:12] commissioner you too could be a commissioner

[28:19] any any other questions

[28:25] and you may not know this but we have a paper shortage

[28:29] I am limited to the amount of paper that I can order at one time so instead of me

[28:34] making an order once a month now we're placing orders every week just so that

[28:40] we can make sure we don't run out of paper

[28:44] any other questions

[28:53] hi I'm a poll commissioner and I've been working for a couple of years doing this

[28:59] and I just want to commend Melissa and everyone else and reassure you I tell

[29:08] all my friends that there is no way we could have any kind of voter fraud in

[29:17] Saint Tammany Parish I don't know I can't speak to other parishes but I've

[29:23] been working enough elections to tell you we've got double books with the

[29:30] registered voters names if someone wants to come in and they're not on our book

[29:35] we've got the go vote app we can say oh well you're not in this Precinct that's

[29:40] that's why you're not here you need to go to that table and vote or yes look

[29:46] your mother already voted she vote it says on there voted early and I strongly

[29:53] encourage as many of you to vote early if you can so you don't have to wait in

[30:00] long lines It also says if they voted by mail it also says if a person needs

[30:07] assist sentence because we do have handicapped elderly people who show up

[30:15] with their children their adult children and say my mom wants to vote and

[30:21] sometimes they have difficulty reading so they have the ability to have someone

[30:28] help them and that's listed in there we have so many ways to keep voter

[30:39] Integrity in this parish and it just devastates me to think that that is now

[30:49] in Jeopardy and I had read an article prior to the November election that said

[30:56] we were going to have paper ballots and I freaked out thinking oh my God we're

[31:01] going to have paper ballots in this November election and no we didn't but

[31:05] when I mentioned it to other other poll Commissioners they didn't know what I

[31:11] was talking about a lot of them were like what paper ballots what do you mean

[31:16] they kind of thought I was nuts it's like we don't we don't need paper we're

[31:21] not going to have paper balance I read an article it says it's coming and

[31:26] frankly I'm a retired teacher I don't know if any of you know what a Scantron

[31:31] test is but I can tell you just from doing a 50 question multiple choice test

[31:42] so many errors so many problems where erasures or seriously I will go back and

[31:52] recheck it and the Machine counted something wrong when they had the right

[31:57] answer or they counted it right when they had the wrong answer that kind of

[32:02] thing I mean it's a machine on a paper ballot there's so much room for error

[32:10] there really is it can get wrinkled it can get bent they're supposed to use a

[32:14] number two pencil they decide to use a black pen or a red pen or all of that so

[32:21] I seriously seriously want to urge anyone here to volunteer to be a poll

[32:30] commissioner it is it's a long long day a very long day

[32:38] uh we had we had to be there at 5 30 in the morning and we didn't leave till a

[32:46] little after 8 30 because you have to you have to get there early to set up

[32:51] the machines and there's a whole lot of stuff you have to pull out and set up

[32:58] and post signs everywhere and you got to be ready and then after they finally

[33:05] announced the polls are closed everybody's like yes only then can you

[33:12] start taking anything down start dismantling you're not allowed to just

[33:17] say could y'all hurry up and vote we need to turn off this machine now no no

[33:21] and now I know we have extended the amount of time that you're allowed to be

[33:28] in the booth to six minutes but it took a lot of people that full

[33:36] six minutes or a little more because you're right they didn't read the

[33:42] Amendments or you're right they don't understand how to vote properly one man

[33:48] he said I don't understand why why can't I vote on the other stuff and what he

[33:53] had done he had pushed the button to cast your ballot on the first screen he

[34:01] thought you had to push cast your ballot and then it would go to the next screen

[34:05] cast your ballot and it would go no you don't push that until you're through

[34:10] voting on everything and this guy was so upset because but I only got to vote on

[34:15] the first thing it's like yeah I'm sorry we can't open it up we can't let you

[34:20] vote again I am

[34:24] I know but seriously I have to tell you even in the most contentious

[34:33] presidential election that we had in 2020

[34:38] everyone in line was so polite and with covid with the masks and standing far

[34:49] apart everyone we did not have fighting

[34:56] pushing anger everyone was so well behaved I was so proud so

[35:06] proud that I could be a witness to see a fair free

[35:12] well-organized well-done election people really are good citizens and a lot of

[35:20] them bring their children with them so and I always tell them your mom your dad

[35:27] is a really good citizen because they came out to vote and you're going to

[35:32] grow up to be a voter too and that's what they need to hear that's what they

[35:38] need to see and if you feel at all a spark of wanting to help not just our

[35:48] Parish but our country really have a a well-run election not where there's all

[35:58] this craziness that people are spouting because you're a witness you're there

[36:03] you can testify that doesn't happen where I'm at and I tell you this paper

[36:11] thing if we don't get some kind of change or amendment to that I know it

[36:20] sounds good people are going to go no we need a paper trail no we don't those

[36:25] machines are so accurate they give you a paper trail in effect you get a printout

[36:32] every machine in quadruple gives you a printout we know exactly how many people

[36:40] voted on that machine and we know because we've got the tally of the

[36:46] machines and it matches with the voter signatures there's it just is such an

[36:53] effective and efficient method and it kills me to think we're going to have to

[36:59] do something different so really I urge you to sign up and spread the word that

[37:05] paper ballots are going to be a disaster thank you Annie do you need a recruiter

[37:12] [Laughter]

[37:21] to where if somebody challenges an election we can go into that device open

[37:26] up and we can manually hand count or rescan those paper receipts of how you

[37:34] voted now remember we can't use a receipt like you get at

[37:38] the grocery store because it's thermal paper and what happens when that gets

[37:42] exposed to the sign it turns black or if it gets wet it turns black we have to be

[37:47] able to retain those records for several years by law we have to retain it so we

[37:53] we need that auditable paper trail that's just going to give us a whole

[37:56] other additional level of transparency and confidence for everyone with our

[38:03] election you may be you maybe said this but I was

[38:08] just wondering if the current machines we have could be modified to print

[38:15] yeah I I heard you say

[38:25] anybody else

[38:40] we want to ask that for this to be amended but when we say we want it to be

[38:45] amended what do we want it to be amended to do

[38:53] but does that mean a paper scan even a paper ballot that can be scanned or we

[38:59] want we want machines like we just need new machines

[39:05] yeah the

[39:09] right there are there are machines out there that you work similarly to the

[39:15] machines we have now but they create a paper trail that goes into a locked box

[39:22] that can be accessed if need be at a later time but you operate the machines

[39:28] very similar to what we do now but what the amendment

[39:34] that's in there that we need changed even our early voting machines will have

[39:39] to be changed too because they don't have paper ballots

[39:43] so right

[39:50] that would roll into a sealed container that it's not a thermal paper it has to

[39:56] be an archival paper that we can maintain

[40:01] um

[40:05] anybody else Stewart

[40:11] since you're running out of questions I've got one that that's my own uh

[40:15] personal favorite is now we have two states that have uh elections where you

[40:21] have rant choice and I was wondering what's your perspective on that would

[40:25] that have would that have to would that make your job too hard to do and how are

[40:31] they doing in Alaska do they have paper ballots or do they have fancy machines

[40:36] expert on other states elections but I will tell you that we do have where you

[40:43] have to select you know multiple people to

[40:47] um in the paper ballots but some people think that when you have to

[40:52] make okay I need to select three that they're saying okay this is my first

[40:57] choice this is my second choice it's my third choice they even do that in areas

[41:02] on the ballot where you only are supposed to select one but they're

[41:05] telling you this is my first choice this is my second choice

[41:10] so like I said

[41:13] well it's instructions no yeah thank you it's already being done I

[41:20] don't know how you do it but for the military overseas they get to have

[41:25] ranked Choice voting because it takes too long to go back and forth but giving

[41:30] everybody that would I think would be great foreign

[41:37] I would just like to say my brother lives in Alaska and they love ranked

[41:42] Choice voting

[41:45] okay

[41:54] we commission meetings that people want to have a receipt when they leave a

[41:58] Precinct well that's going to also open up another level of voting fraud of

[42:03] buying boats okay so we don't want anybody walking out with ballads we

[42:09] don't want people walking out with receipts and also dealing with a

[42:13] Precinct level you know Johnny and I can sit here all night and talk about will

[42:19] this possibly could happen and that could possibly happen because we we're

[42:22] dealing with it Hands-On where what if somebody makes a mistake on a ballot and

[42:28] they want a new ballot so now we have to spoil a ballot

[42:32] document that they were given a new ballot and then we got to keep track of

[42:36] that spoiled ballot we also have to make sure that somebody's not walking in with

[42:40] the ballot and trying to get two ballots put into the machine

[42:45] there's multiple things multiple things and like I said there's so many laws

[42:52] that would have to be changed and updated and amended

[42:56] to for us to be able to implement paper ballots

[43:00] and I don't think everybody realizes you know our election code's that thick and

[43:06] we have come so far with our election process to have the controls in place to

[43:11] have the safeguards in place to where we are leading the nation with our

[43:15] elections and it's just disheartening to think that we're regressing

[43:20] because of a a choice view that are saying we want hand marked Hand counted

[43:27] and what they mean by hand counted is they wanted the Commissioners to stay in

[43:32] the precinct after 8 pm and hand tabulate all of the ballots

[43:41] you know that is true I I went to a vendor presentation in Baton Rouge of a

[43:48] lot of the machines and then the I think two days afterwards there was a hearing

[43:55] that I looked at online and it was people that had been at the

[44:00] vendor presentation I wanted to throw things across my

[44:05] kitchen when I was watching this so many of them were talking about

[44:11] counting the paper ballots they didn't even trust the scanners they wanted

[44:17] every paper ballot counted and saying a week we can hire I

[44:23] Aunt Jenny and her 10 kids they'll help us you know I mean that's really what it

[44:28] sounded like it was very frustrating

[44:33] that's right yeah that's right

[44:36] Liz

[44:45] so what words should we include when we write to our representative that we want

[44:50] these changes made this amendment what do we do to make him understand

[44:55] exactly what we want what are you going to write to your representative I bet

[44:59] you already have

[45:07] that's it so you don't want me to say I don't want

[45:11] to hand write it or have Aunt Jenny counting it or anything like that

[45:15] [Laughter] audible paper trail okay

[45:32] because then

[45:35] of our bid for a new

[45:39] we can talk about we wanted to be able to do this we

[45:43] wanted to be able to do that but we can't be specific I can't say a vendor's

[45:47] name nor will I say the the vendor's name that you know everybody calls the

[45:52] devil um

[45:55] but the other thing I wanted to mention to you when I was talking to you about

[45:59] the difference between Louisiana and the other states

[46:02] Louisiana is they the Secretary of State staff are

[46:07] the only ones that handle our voting machines they're the ones that program

[46:11] our voting machines repair our boating machines

[46:15] in the other state the vendor is there

[46:20] sealing the machines repairing the machines programming the machines and

[46:25] they're there in their election center on Election night tabulating the votes

[46:29] uploading them onto the internet okay so there's your difference of your

[46:35] breakdown of security because we don't have that

[46:39] the machines are entrusted to me the the clerks are the custodians of the voting

[46:43] machines and then after the election they're turned back over into the

[46:48] Secretary of State's possession Johnny

[46:52] I just I just want to let y'all know as as your Clerk of Court

[46:57] as as y'all's representative uh in elections

[47:02] is the chief election officer we're not here we're just trying to tell you or

[47:08] let y'all understand what's the best thing out there electronic voting is

[47:13] good there's there's we go in we vote we have the results there they're accurate

[47:20] and we understand that there some of the concerns that people have but there's

[47:26] machines out there that will answer all these concerns and you still go in and

[47:33] vote just like you've been voting you're not going to see much change and that's

[47:37] what we want you to to understand that we're trying to get say hey we don't

[47:43] have to go back it's like if you know covet hit

[47:46] if we wouldn't have our stuff online the lawyers couldn't come into office

[47:51] there's a lot of things it would have been shut down but luckily we had

[47:55] everything where you could get on a computer you could look up whatever you

[47:59] need and business went on as usual and that's what we want our election we

[48:03] don't want to discourage somebody not to vote we want to be able to vote walk up

[48:07] electronically vote got a paper trail shows how you voted goes in and when we

[48:14] open the machines up if somebody challenges we can open that lock box up

[48:18] take them out scan them and they can they can do checks and balances with

[48:23] these machines when this started the first thing that

[48:27] was going to happen was was you're going to was going to vote by paper ballot the

[48:31] Commissioners would was going to stay over and count them that's what the

[48:35] original it started as now I tell my Commissioners that now like Mr Crane we

[48:41] done you can forget about us I'm not being ugly but I'm just saying it as

[48:45] your clerks and whatever y'all tell us to do or whatever machine y'all hand us

[48:49] we're going to do our best with but we think before something is is

[48:55] I don't want to say shove down our throats but before something is voted on

[48:59] it we had no input in that you need to know that there's things out there that

[49:05] your Saturday of election or your Tuesday of election you can run go

[49:10] before you go to work run in there and vote and go to work and not worry about

[49:14] like you do now so that's that's all we're doing is trying to give y'all the

[49:18] facts give y'all what's out there because this got like the guy by us it

[49:24] like to got by the clerks and the ROV who works for the Secretary of State

[49:29] none of us was on this committee how do you have a committee and you

[49:34] don't even put your the people that run the election on there so that's what

[49:38] we're doing I'm not Melissa I appreciate everything you do and I appreciate Saint

[49:43] Tammany but I just wanted you all to know because I'm doing the same in my

[49:46] Parish talking to the voters letting them know we're not trying to change

[49:51] things we just want to make it better but keep everybody

[49:55] The Experience they have of boating as they have now so thank you

[50:00] thank you so much Missy

[50:05] it sounds to me like the legislators knew what they were doing very well by

[50:11] keeping everybody out that might have had a change

[50:15] in my opinion for what that's worth I think that they

[50:21] were good with the first bill that went through that had the wording that we're

[50:26] looking for but then like from what I understand about a half hour before the

[50:31] session ended this amendment got put in the required paper paper ballots and I

[50:37] do not think that they had the time nor the will when since the session was

[50:41] closing to read the entire bill so you know I in in my opinion I think

[50:47] it was a last minute change you know any other questions

[50:54] I want to thank Melissa and and and Johnny crane because they're doing the

[51:01] they're doing the hard work it's you know they're putting themselves out

[51:06] there and getting this message across and now it's up to us to do the rest of

[51:11] the work so I hope that you do I appreciate everybody coming tonight I

[51:16] know it's real cold and nasty outside but this is so important and

[51:23] since I've Been On The Board of Elections supervisors this has become my

[51:28] passion so it means so much to me and I really feel confident in what Melissa's

[51:35] office does and I'm certain that Mr Crane your office runs the same way so

[51:40] thank you so much for that [Applause]

[51:51] [Music]

Northshore Democratic Women's Society Monthly Meeting 11-15-2022

Transcript