Aljazeera. Wherever. And everybody im fairly ok welcome to the street can you believe its less than 10 weeks in the u. S. And in november theres been so much debate about voting. About the safety of voting. Everybodys vote counted that we put together an x. But not for you to talk to and you can ask them questions you can air your concerns and do that. And be in this. Hi ladies so good to see you i will say hello to the guests the guests were introduced themselves to you starting with ice introduce yourself to our audience hi everyone im. A politics reporter at Business Insider covering everything related to elections with a particular focus this year on voting and election instruction in the current 1000. 00 pandemic fantastic to have you alexandria welcome to the stream tell everybody who. Formed a group or group will work with and that all the way focused on young people are great to have you and introduce yourself to our international audience. Hello there im Amber Mcreynolds and im the c. E. O. Of the National Vote at home and city to and we are solely focused on improving the voting experience for every single american thank you very much john but thanks ladies im thinking of this as a voting clinic it whenever you feel like we need some help as a result to take just jumping go for it and lets not a festival with some some real basics mailing vote absentee votes theres been such a huge compensation about what the difference is doesnt even matter. Thats right and honestly that fundamentally it is the same thing the voter is choosing to vote at home i mean theres 2 options really to vote in the United States of america you can vote in person polling place vote Center Early Voting or you can vote at home and some states call that absentee voting in some states call it vote by mail or mail and voting but fundamentally the ballot is handled in the exact same way it just gives you more days more time more opportunity to vote at home and then you can either drop it off or you can mail it back. Race voices even a deep bay to a discussion the just seems like that would be a natural thing to do in 2020 and in a pandemic. Yeah so it really is not a partisan issue at all i mean Everyone Needs to vote somehow but the president of the United States and some of his allies you know starting at the beginning of the pandemic did really politicize this issue and make it you know a topic of debate the president of the United States has spread baseless claims that mail in voting is fraudulent that its subject to foreign interference that mail in voting hurts republicans which it doesnt theres no evidence whatsoever to support that and you know the president politicisation evidence that this issue and his campaign fighting in court in many states to restrict mail and voting has made this you know a hot button partisan issue when you know in another world it probably wouldnt be. And i know that youre in the conversation because you bring from the the you fangirl with you and im just looking here at pew and some of them essentially were looking at how people voted through the ages was since the ninetys and an online many votes i should say 9096 and 7 percent actually voted in that way and by the last election 20 percent so behind this current election it should be even higher. Yes however there are a lot of issues right now that were facing as young people so our College Students have a big issue with whether theyre going to register their home address and have a place on campus so theres a huge issue of displacement thats really going to back where people how they vote and if theyre even registered as a lot of people have actually been a star just by virtue of not receiving a millions from. Catch us what you catch here is a Student Organization shes a student activists campus vote project and she really bowed down the issue that young people having right now is even registering to vote. States like texas has very strict Voter Registration laws and they new neatly affect young people and people of color at higher rates in terms of disenfranchisement and part of this is because young voters are not able to register online which is one of the primary ways that young people are getting information and young voters are expected to figure out if they should make a plan to vote in person at their College Address make a plan to vote by mail at home or figure out if theyre even to be living at their College Address or living at home before november is even happening and make a plan months in advance during a time of completely unprecedented confusion for a lot of people in america. Xandra how do you fix not its a tough one because were essentially its worse with. All these things are going back to marvels. And we dont know whats going to happen we dont know if theres going to be a huge outbreak on their campus of covert and theyre going to be forced back home so there is something that were talking or another student that really pushed the 1st is that people do attempt to vote. Thats going to be the big thing for all people whether youre called whether youre 80 years old and that you also want to really push your friends to the same on the 2nd thing is to really push instill sweep over i think that those students really get to the polls will have less polls because of the Elderly Community that is really. All right so the voting precinct is well and truly open and our if we need online voting grace is that possible. Yeah there are really a lot of Security Issues that come with trying to cast a ballot online and im obviously not a Cyber Security expert by any means but i just know that when you you know put a Voting System on the internet its much much more vulnerable to hacking whether there are denial of service attacks that can bring down an entire towns Voting System or just noticed individual open to malware malfeasance any of that and really you know there are no countries that have been able to figure this out you know developed countries have been able to its securely figure out a way to have voting online and really just the most secure way at this time to have voting that safe from interference and hacking any of that is paper ballots or electronic voting with a peeper trail for audits there just you know so opening a huge can of worms trying to have a Voting System thats online but it should be easier to vote now than it is already and i definitely see where that desire comes from to this want to cast a ballot online. Im but let me put this into you a l says on you choose ill be voting in pes and dont want to race my phone being lost or not counted or place any more strain on the u. S. P. S. Thats the United States postal system so that presidency im just going im going to to the polls and i actually going to do it in person and you would say why. Well i think its every voters choice right so the great thing is that you have the choice in every single state even the states that mail a ballot to every elector but i do want to go back a 2nd just on the on the even the last 2 questions as well. The system that we designed in colorado addresses all of these gaps were talking about and so 1st and foremost same day registration automatic registration that that gives you a stopgap if theres the eventual of a student not being on campus anymore same day registration and eliminating those overly burdensome deadlines like what texas has is extremely important colorado has that many of the frankly all the top states for turnout every cycle have same day registration its very clear that that helps especially Younger Voters colorado also was one of the top states for youth voter turnout so was or again and again were empowering voters with multiple days multiple options to vote as well as eliminating those burdensome to outlines and then the online voting piece there is electronic transmission happening for military voters thats been in place because weve had to solve those logistical challenges and then thats also being expanded in some states for accessible purposes but grace is exactly right the security is not there for a full rollout and really a lot of the reason is because you have a right to a secret ballot under the constitution and so because of the way that that voting works we have to break your name from your ballot and thats different from Online Banking everyone always asks me oh i can online bank so i must be able to vote but theres actually some more complications with the voting process that a lot of people dont realize exist. The security is concerned about this this is just saying hi jacki thanks for being in today is there any proof system fairy flight that its the coming by mail on the key to mint again hes one of the concerns as he bubbling up in the us of the last couple weeks who wants to handle that press you just fell into it. So there are actually a number of different ways Election Officials verify voted absentee ballots so firstly you have to sign the on follow up that comes from your about comes with your ballot you have to have your signature on there and now there are 31 states that use something called signature matching where they say the signature that on your return ballot on will open they compare it to a signature thats already on file whether its the one you use when you register to vote or one on file with the d. M. V. Its and there are teams that you know verify signatures and confirm the person who was sent the ballot is the one who received less other security measures to ensure the integrity of mail ballots included ballot tracking where every ballot gets a barcode or a tracking number a specific to the voter and it allows them to track their ballot see if its been received its arrived back at the Elections Office and also john secure a ballot drop boxes are being expanded now in several states and those are those that are set up by Election Officials and allow voters to drop off their ballots without having to go through the u. S. Postal service and just get from point a to point b. And so there are many many measures that states new is to verify mail ballots thats why they take longer to count process to and when alexandria anything else to add up pretty comprehensive answer. Yeah i went out a couple of things so it was so everything that gray said for sure and where i was in Elections Official we actually created the 1st ballot tracking system now 11 years ago so its been around for a while but theres actually other additional pieces throughout the process that add security so your ballot has to go to your registered address or where you requested it if youve moved or that kind of thing your ballots not forwarded so theres an address validation also the type of paper thats used and the coding on each of the individual ballots actually cant be replicated some people said oh we could use a copy machine thats actually not feasible given the size the paper density the weight without that being detected also on the outside of the envelope in addition to the elements gray said theres actually a barcode and sequence id thats created not only with your voter id but the particular Election Code so if you for instance use an envelope from a previous election the barcode would be caught so there is literally i think close to 30 possibly even more different pieces of Data Information steps that happen throughout the process where the validation occurs and therefore we would be able to detect any malicious activity so its extremely difficult to do what some people are kind of throwing around us something easy to do and frankly the systems been designed that way to enhance and protect the integrity of the election. Bringing a new voice into conversation this is david greek state the c. E. O. And director executive director of why does and what im hearing from david is planning planning any of his. 35 states with voter id laws in an estimated 5000000 voters nationally lekkerkerker government issued photo do code that many states are for expanding i mean all absentee vote billions of voters are going to be voting by mail for the 1st time ever stage which required a haiti to go back the same time give using its grease closures until aides are doing Everything Possible in the writers to make sure were sharing up to the Accurate Information supporters have confidence they have what they need to vote into votes and. Race yeah definitely voter id laws you know presented additional challenge and the pandemic because as david mentioned Service Center is where you can obtain an id or close to there also cost prohibitive to obtain a for a lot of people are and you know thats one of the things thats most important for you as youre making your voting plan is to figure out does your state require an id is a photo id is it a non photo id most of the states that do have a voter id laws are nonstrike states meaning that if you dont have the required id you can sign an affidavit affirming your identity or have a coworker about for you but those are additional steps you have to take in so we had super super important to figure out what the id requirements are in your state and how you need to meet. We have kind of scattered around the issue of Global Pandemic doing a major election but it is a concern alexandra let me show you this this is from the they were on a web site feith thats yeats and this Voter Registrations are way down june. Im thinking they should probably be way up she needs. Alexandra whats your take on how coronavirus is impacting this upcoming election in United States i really wanted to ask the question people ask me that it was only about Student Learning in the dismissal of a gamma problem but if you think about what upon them of course in terms of our basic needs. Housing food people of us jobs people are concerned about who wish to go back on campus and. Especially you know skirt around this issue to the fact that we have. Protesting in the street and people are being murder theres a lot going on so frankly i think people have been less concerned about getting register as compared to 26 in that list but i think that were going to be around especially in september now that its too much. Is it the case that if you have to match the you have to go to where you would normally pick up your driving license so you actually have to register in passing or does that depend on what state you actually happen to be in because that would mean that registrations would be you know when if you want to go into any Office Anywhere and to the offices have a few alice in which theyre actually open and available to people. Thats thats right and actually the top method that voters get registered to vote in the country is actually through the Motor Vehicle locations and part of the reason for that is because we have a motor voter law that was put into place under the m. P. R. A National Voter registration act and that is at the point where you do that transaction thats where youre asked the questions register to vote a lot of states have automated that but that is the top method and so because those locations were closed because people are avoiding those sorts of transactions or being in crowded environments it complicated an already very complicated and difficult situation the 2nd piece is in some states you can register to vote online not all but many and i would advise that you know you should check that now if you can at least even just verify that your address is up to date thats really critical to do today but the reason that weve seen these registrations down is because of the d. M. V. Being closed because they are the top method every election cycle of for registration activity and this is honestly again another exposure that the pandemic has brought forward which is laws around Voter Registration because most states still have antiquated outdated laws on the books that require a 30 day registration requirement in your precinct and all of that and if you move even within the jurisdiction you end up voting a provisional and so thats why were such a big advocate of same day registration automatic registration as well as ballot ina automatically so that voters dont have to think about these sorts of questions and potentially be disenfranchised the one final point ill say on that the help america vote act set up a provisional voting process after florida 2000 and im im actually starting to be more concerned that were going to have a very high number of provisional ballots cast this year because of the registration issues and those actually. Even longer to process and theyre more expensive to process and they also backup the voting lines so i think one of the challenges were going to see with in person voting is an increase in provisional ballots because of this gap in registration that we continue to see right i want to add something that i think its implicit that. There are so 20 years ago exactly i voted right attempted to vote for the 1st time and i was unable to care about it. And i was one of those disenfranchised people on the land and really hard for the position of the right. But what were seeing now and this is my biggest concern especially for students exactly what you just said about the original vote my concern is that this president whos really pushing in person voting will say you know what lets just handle this in the court lets just deal with this just like bush v gore and we saw the fruit of that and what happened a concern is that all of the provisional voting and all of the vote by mail and all the absentee voting issue will be handled in the court and a lot of peoples votes will oh i did not think i would ever have the opportunity to begin the bron james bond that were playing right into a conversation about voting but he we are and he is having this. Well we put a Team Together to be able to give our trainers the resources to let them understand what their. What their rights are. Is a lot of people grow up in the city. One are afraid of. Because the previous convictions or something has happened in their lives and theyve been lied to for so many years ago its why they cant vote or they dont believe that they both have so they dont even go. He want change we actually change in our communities and we wanted to do for our communities and know what we want change we have to make it ourselves. Is really important and that is one of the things i discovered as a teen following this photo discussions head of november the surge is that people who are passionate about voting there are so Many Organizations and n. G. O. S and websites that help people to vote to make sure that they can do it i want to talk about tendencies and options and this is a speeding ticket and i want to know how many different ways can you actually vote things that you should be considering if its not going to the polls on election day rice name one 0 definitely early voting is a big one in most states at this point have some form of early voting whether its traditionally at a polling place or what sometimes referred to as in person absentee or you cast a paper ballot or Elections Office so thats a great option to avoid long lines on election day all right grace another alternative going. Well obviously so i think. Im going to share this valid sound alexandra you didnt get off that night and its not enough i wouldnt go right. One of them girls who are called you as well are calling on your campus which is the smallest to get one yes nice and well tentative. Well for sure make a plan to vote and one of the projects ive been working on actually to alexanders point is getting some of the now m. B. A. Stations that have set up their arenas for voting but weve also been working with some. Sort of owners of the stadiums and large structures on College Campuses as well and so were making some really Good Progress and getting some of these colleges and universities to commit some bigger space than they traditionally do on campus so you know look at your options if you want to if you want more time to look over issues and vote vote at home you should definitely sign up because it is a safe and secure process Election Officials are working really hard across the country to make that happen that it just gives you more time and more days and you do it on your own time as opposed to being constrained to what the government is offering you and im going to show a tweet that you read tweeted and its from the n. Y. C. Board of elections the well its most famous arena and the New York Knicks and new york rangers will be an early vote on election day post site for the 2020 president ial general election thank you the god thats nice and god and pretty pretty impressive grace this is this is youll meet what he said if print about the election is when it comes to voting and options and the debates around voting how would you sum it up. And i would just say that everything for and you know its whats missing as we have seen a lot of states of action to make it is there to vote thats allowing ever he wants to to all expanding earning sending out made about and i think the most amazing for all the know is that you know what made him a scary or and you made it overwhelmed so if you empower yourself and take your own hand and an example in a pandemic and that risk you know not thinking well actually they have never had but thinking of it as you know started figuring out your plan to vote them out about her voting by mail about you know where and you know eating is. You know is are different but voters still have. A lot of office to what they do yeah so get your plan together is what grace is saying no were losing a little bit of youre already because of the internet but we get the point is rainy. Says green with all of you expert guess not voting in the coronavirus has exposed a lot of problems that we have a society and i vote system is one of them and the voting process coupe be a whole lot easier but thank you grace in alexandria and the unpacking options and plans and strategies that americans who want to vote that they can do it come november a more they should be thinking about we appreciate the time you keep thank you very much indeed and always remember that whenever we have a conversation on the stream of the program there is always a complementary conversation that we have on instagram that is a way sunday to wednesday 1630 g. M. T. You can follow us on instagram at a. J. Stream for now thanks for watching c. N. N. 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