Conversations we have been having over and over. Define for us the difference between male and and absentee voting. Perfecthere is no definition of these sayings. We use these terms loosely and we use them in different ways. Broadly speaking, i think we can talk about there being two ls for the whale which we might avoid a ballot. Who really have an excuse. They have a requirement on them. On the other end of the spectrum, an outlet for only those who need it [indiscernible] state starting the process. North carolina will be the first state to send out absentee ballots today, september 4. Minnesota will be the first allowto allow state to in person voting. What is the reason for starting early . Advice is toece of know your own state rules and laws. [indiscernible] you if you are worried about your ballot. Etting there. Heck your Voter Registration if you need to request a ballot, request it early. If youre going to vote by mail, get it in earlier. States that require that by like today. There are challenges getting it there. Starting early, knowing early, also, if youre going to a polling place, knowing where that is, perhaps going there as well. Those are things voters can do, no matter what the rules are in their state. Go ahead and make sure thereve host you wrote the book on the subject. You have studied this subject. Do you have concerns about absentee or the early voting process in the u. S. Now . Concerns withre every part of the Voting System normally. Things that could be better. Voters can help by being proactive. There are challenges from covid. More people will be looking to vote by mail this time. Many states and administrators have changed laws and rules to allow that. Is willwhat your system help mitigate problems. Problems with states not processing ballots as quickly as expected. The process would be longer. If you want to ensure your ballot gets counted and does not miss the deadline, getting it in early would be helpful. There are issues. Issues withtegrity parts of the Voting System. There are access issues. There, the administrators are doing the best they can in a difficult situation. Host our viewers can take part in this conversation. We will open up special lines. If you plan to early vote, i want to hear from you. What are your plans . How do you plan to early vote . Male in or in person . Person . In or in 202 7488000. If you plan to wait and vote on election day, i want to know what your plans are, how you plan to vote. For those of you voting on election day, your number is 202 7488001. Mail,re going to vote by i know there are several states that require you to vote by mail, tell us of your experience. Your number for voting by mail is 202 7488002. One last line. If you dont intend to vote at all for this upcoming election, we want to know why. We have a special line for those who dont plan to vote, 202 7488003. Once again, early voters, 202 7488000. Election day voters, 202 748 8001. Mail invoters voters, 202 7488002. Nonvoters, 202 7488003. You can always text at 202 7488003. Im still reading on social and ontwitter, cspanwj facebook. Com cspan. John, with all the talk of the pandemic, we are expecting a large number of early voters. Early votinglain every year. I have had to vote on election day every year. Will this cause any stress on the system in getting votes counted and letting us know who wins the election . Guest there are significant challenges. States are having to deal with a flood of voters. They not necessarily to have the workers they want. Many of them will deal with more ballots coming in. Some systems are changed dramatically and how they count. There could be issues. People have mentioned the possibility that we will not know the results of the election on election day. I am not as negative as some. It depends how close the election is and certainly, the states. There is more pressure this time on the Postal Service and accounting period. If we get a large number of ballots coming in by mail, later than usual, dealing with new systems counting them, perhaps at a slower rate, with legal challenges and recounts, we can see how that can stretch out postelection. With all the votes, there is a likelihood we will take longer. If it is not closing many key states, we may know the Election Results soon after. If it is razor thin, we will place more problems. Host lets let some of our viewers join in. Carolina,cing, north he will early vote. Caller morning. Im going to vote early, when the polls open. I will be online. In line. I dont trust this mail in system. [indiscernible] 175 miles away, days from the Postal Service to do everything [indiscernible] they have got it screwed up. They dont care now. [indiscernible] we are hurting. Carolina in north [indiscernible] summer homes, then they go back and vote in the state where they are from. They vote twice right there. It is something that needs to be changed. Ost go ahead, john guest it may be helpful to lay out terminology on early voting. Voting is in person different by voting by mail and is different than voting on election day. [indiscernible] they have sites where you can [indiscernible] that has risen dramatically over the years. Voting by mail has also risen dramatically. 25 . Those numbers have been going up steadily. Number will goil up again this year. System, wewe are a dont have one big National Registration list. The states have made great progress within of creating databases where they know john smith in this county, if this is the same person, we dont have them on the list twice. States have started to share info through programs. Cases, typically a small number of people voting twice. I do not think it is a widespread problem. We are moving toward being able to fix that. We dont have a perfect system because states are different. Host i will try to help our viewers. I have voting times and deadlines. In North Carolina, you have until october 27 to request an application for an absentee vote. Early voting states, october 15 to october 31 and your mailin ballot dates will be, that has to be postmarked november 3 at 5 p. M. Steve, anaheim, california. Good morning. Are you there . Caller there you are. Good morning. Before i go on my rant, i would like to commend cspan for excellent coverage. Your programs, the contenders, tv, court review cases, has been very insightful enjoyable. Host thank you. Caller you are welcome. Ould like to congratulate [indiscernible] scully for being the moderator for the president ial debate. Will jump on my pepe here. Pet peeve here. If you want absentee voting, i have no problem. Four states to willynilly for states to willynilly send qualifications to vote, yeah, i have a problem. This year, i received two ballots in the mail from california. This will kick me off the roll s. Personll me if i vote in and they have already mailed me voter cards, i will not be able to vote in person. Imll find on voting day, not doing good on my explanation but that is the problem i have. Guest some of the states have some real challenges to make sure they are doing it well where the some states who have been doing it for a while have this in place. I think things will go reasonably well but i think there are some significant challenges for the way one implements this and another part the caller brought up, sometimes you can vote in person but you and have a mailin ballot states have to figure out how to deal with that. They will check you off the list if you show up to vote in person. Perhaps they will have you cast a provisional ballot which they will deal with later if they think youre absentee ballot is outstanding. These are complicated matters. I think there will be some kinks in the system. Working that out over time will help. It is such a challenging environment for this election. Host President Trump talked about this very issue recently at a stop at the Wilmington International airport. I will play for you what President Trump said in North Carolina. [video clip] they will go out and vote and they will have to check their vote by going to the polls and voting that way because if it tabulates, they will not be able to do that. Let them send it in and let them go vote and if their system is as good as they say it is, obviously they will not be able to vote. If it is not tabulated, they will be able to vote. That is the way it is. That is what they should do. Ofont like the idea unsolicited votes. I never did. It leads to problems. Hey have 11 problems already i am not happy about it. Time, we are going to see if it can be stopped. Send in your ballots, whether it is solicited or unsolicited. The absentee is fine. We have to work to get them to be something. You send them in and you go to vote. If they have not counted it, you can vote. That is the way i view it. Host President Trump clarified he does not mean people should vote twice. But if you do mail in early or absentee vote and you want to be sure that your vote was counted, what do you do . That i want to reiterate no one should vote twice. Sometimes there are some questions about people who voted absentee as you mentioned and want to know if they have had their vote counted or people who have forgotten that theyre going to do so and state laws vary on this. In a number of states, you can track your absentee ballot through the state website. That is not true everywhere. Be in touch should with your local election official. Some will be more likely to provide that information. If you do go to the polling place or even if you have a ,alid outstanding ballot there is likely going to be some procedure to cash someone voting twice. Catch someone voting twice. Whether it is a database that notes that you already voted, or perhaps the state does not know for sure, they might actually ask you to cast a provisional ballot. Make sure that only one of your votes counts. These are difficult things. Procedures are in place, but they are different everywhere and there is some confusion. Checking with your state if they have the capacity to tell you whether your boat has come in, or perhaps whether it has been accepted, that is a possibility for some voters. Host let me add that i forgot to tell for our california voters, you can apply for absentee by mail or in person. The deadline to request your application will be october 27, the beginning of early in person voting is october 5 and the mailin ballot deadline, you have to be postmarked by november 3. Lets go back to the phone lines and talk to tom calling from baltimore, maryland. He says he is not going to vote. Good morning. Caller good morning. It is funny. When i was in seventh grade, they taught me about the Electoral College. Im glad to see it is finally getting the attention that it needs. I have never voted for a president , i dont see the point. Aside from the fact that i think both candidates are subpar. I will take my comments off the air. Thanks. Host Electoral College. Book on thee a new Electoral College, a new addition, an explanation of how it works. I think the Electoral College has been controversial. Certainly polling has been against the Electoral College. It is also difficult to change. I think the caller might be referring to the fact that perhaps his state is not a closed state and it is true in the Electoral College, the key states are the ones that are competitive, that is where most of the resources will be spent. I would encourage voters to vote anyway. There are a lot of things on the ballot. Your vote still does matter, even if we have the National Popular vote, your vote would still matter even if it were on the losing side. It is a good thing to put up your preference to vote. Dont think the Electoral College is the one reason you should not. This caller has a strong word about it and Many Americans would prefer a different system. Host i will point out as well that there are more races than just the president ial race this fall. You have your senate, house, local mayor, governor, city counselor, School Boards on the ballot as well. There is a bigger thing going on than just the president ial election. In maryland, this great chart comes from axios. Com. In maryland, you can apply for your absentee ballot online. The deadline is october 20. The early in person voting date is between october 26 and november 2 and your mailin ballot deadline will be november 3. Im going to go to a question that came from one of our social media followers. This person wants to know if our vote is 95 accurate, what can be done to get that last 5 . I am not sure where the number 95 accurate came from. I think our vote is pretty accurate. If the caller or the social media commenter is asking about could there be some ballots that are not counted, that is going to be true. There are restrictions and deadlines in different states. There are ways in which sometimes voters make mistakes on their ballot. We have done a fair amount to remedy that. If you remember in florida in 2000, we were looking at things s, wethe punchcard ballot dont have those systems anymore. We have many things in place to keep people from making mistakes. I think it is a complicated system. All of the different states with different rules. There are some places where people can make mistakes. There are going to be some mistakes made in the accounting and casting process. I think we are pretty high on the scale and we have done pretty well. As a voter checking your Voter Registration, knowing what the rules are and how and where youre going to vote, i think those are important. There are some things after the election we can talk about to improve the registration and the system as well. I think we should feel confident that your vote will be counted especially if you are proactive. Host im going to go to another question from a social media follower. It is a similar question that i would ask myself. What procedures are in place to protect the chain of custody of a mailin ballot . With an absentee ballot, people request it. With a mailin ballot, people do not. Guest it varies from state to state. Typically you are going to have a ballot and you are going to fill out the ballot and then put it in an envelope. That envelope will have certain information you will have to put on it. It is there to verify who you are. States, it is more extensive. You might have to provide a reason or get a witness. Other states maybe you have to put your name. Also there is a privacy aspect and that nobody in the mail system is going to treat it like another envelope. Once the local officials receive them, typically you are going to have a system of looking at that ballot or opening the ballot which is monitored by representatives from both parties. You will have an election official and both parties watching out for the other making sure that no one view is represented or not. Sometimes there are disputes about whether a ballot is legitimate or not or has met the requirements. Have made a if you mistake on the envelope, they may contact you and give you an opportunity to correct that, to get the right signature, to get the witness requirement. Getting it there on time is important. There are things that we can do that keep the ballots safe and a lot of it has to do with the fact that we allow the parties and their representatives to watch over the system at every step of the way. The rooms are guarded. There are cameras and there are people from both parties watching out. Host lets go back to the phone lines and talk to bill who was calling from columbia, maryland. He plans to vote by mail. Good morning. Caller good morning. Two reasons why i plan to vote by mail. First of all, i am a hard worker and i dont want to take time off. Second thing is as a trumps supporter, i voted before at the polls where i live and i live in a very blue section of maryland. There is a certain amount of hostility that i face. I have not faced long lines but i suspect there will be long lines this year. I have three comments. Is, when i order something online, i get a message saying where it is received and it tells me when it is going to be delivered and all that. I dont know why we cannot have technology set up where when the , yout is received by mail get a notice via email or some other way that it was received and then you can go online and look at it and see that it was actually tabulated for the candidates that you chose. The second point that i wanted to raise is there is all this theern about manning polling places and i am wondering why they cannot take members of the National Guard, young people who are healthy, who are not that susceptible to Serious Problems from covid, why they cannot have them man the polling places. The third thing that concerns me as a trump voter, the postal union has come out in support of biden and we are expecting them to make these deliver the mail. I have read stories about postal employees just throwing the mail out because they did not want to go through the trouble of delivering it or potentially postal employees who are very probiden and they are like, im going to throw them out because im in a red district where there is a lot of potentially trump voters coming in. Those are my comments and i would like to hear your response. First point, in many states you can track your ballot. It is a process that is evolving. The stateten go on to election website and track the ballot coming into you. If you requested it, it might be able to tell you that it has been sent out or it has reached the post office and on the way back, that the officials have received it or not. That is possible for a number of jurisdictions. You just have to check your own circumstances. Russian, ional guard think there are some significant issues about poll workers. Voting in person will be an important part of this election even if we do more voting by mail. We are worried that we are going to see some dropoff in poll workers. On average they are older. Some of them have not wanted to show up at the polls. There might be lastminute illnesses or reasons people cannot come. It is a big push to make sure we have that capacity. Some of it is more volunteers and many of you out there can do a Great Service by volunteering to be a poll worker in your state. I think there is a place for some more permanent employees to take over. Something the states do is they often have other state workers, not election workers, maybe work on election day. And a number of states have used the National Guard. I think that is a real option for places. We have seen it in the primaries and we will see it again in some states where National Guard members could be helpful in supplementing the poll workers that are already there. We are going to need that capacity in this election just because of the difficulties we are facing. And then the last question was about the postal union. Is notly the post office going to do these sort of things and individuals are taking their responsibilities seriously. I think there are some safeguards in place. Postal mail or election mail is tracked more seriously. It is not something that is just subject to the whim of an individual, a person in the post office. They are identified and prioritized. There are deals with specific states and the local post office to make sure those ballots are at the right place at the right time. Anything that is absolutely a problem, i think there are a number of safeguards in place to make the postal delivery less subject to that than some worry. Host one of our social media followers is asking my followup question. With mailin ballots, cat people no whether you are a can people know whether you are a democrat or republican from the envelope . Guest the general answer is no. There are some questions in the primaries where there might be more identification. The best practice is most states will not identify which party you are 44 in the general election. I cannot say that is absolutely universal. Youroadly the case are voting for in the general election. Host we know that there are different voting rules in every state. My question to you is that should states be more uniform with their voting by mid . Guest that is a debate we have had for a very long time. Federal Voting Rights laws. We have registration laws. We have laws for overseas voters. There are some things done at the federal level but the primary responsibility being at the states and at the administration at the local level. We have great differences. I think there probably are some areas where we could do things a little more uniformly. I think there is a long history of states wanting to do different things. The states of washington and oregon who went very early to voting by mail, that might not be a preference for people on the east coast or in the south where there is a lot more early voting. They may prefer that system. Some of the difference or regional difference or just the opportunity of voters to craft the system they want. It does make our system much more complicated than a lot of systems around the world. It has some virtues and that it allows it to be tailored to each particular state. Host that is a great lead into our next caller who is carroll calling from washington. She is going to vote early. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, carroll. Caller hello, hi. Host 5 you are on, go ahead. Caller we have had in my county which is 20 miles north of seattle, they mail us our ballot s and we have drop boxes all over the place where you can mail your ballot back in. I have used a dropbox and that works wonderfully. Bigdrop boxes out here are heavy secure things. I have seen the ones on the news and in other parts of the country. Reallyse they are in populated places, but they do not look as heavyduty. Earlierg to vote way this time because of the problems are National Government is doing with our post Office Getting things delivered and picked up. I will be voting as soon as i get my ballot and i hope we receive those ballot three weeks ahead of time this time. Dropbox system works wonderfully, especially in these times of the problems with the u. S. Mail because of our National Government. People who want a change in what is going on nationally get out and vote and do it early so we can get america back to being normal again. I think carroll puts her finger on a good feature of many of our states process which is the dropbox. Systems when the ballot is mailed to you, you dont necessarily have to return it by mail. I know oregon and colorado, states that have done vote by mail for a long time, they have a very extensive system of drop boxes. In colorado, a majority of people return their ballots to the boxes rather than put them in the mail. It is going to vary from state to state. Some states dont have them. Some have put them in more recently. We would not expect those states to have as extensive systems as the ones out west. Carol mentioned how they are very secure in washington. Many of them are monitored by cameras. I do think it is a good option for people, again, getting the ballot in earlier and not missing the deadline. If you get it into the dropbox before election day, it is going to be counted. If the ballot is dropped in the mail later and closer to the election day, you might not have it there in time for your states deadline. Drop boxes are a good option. Once again for Washington State voters, you are voting by mail but your early in person voting day will be october 26 and your mailin ballot deadline will be on november 3. Im going to take a quick break and tell you about some breaking news that just came out about the nations Unemployment Rate. The Labor Department reported today that the Unemployment Rate while the u. S. Economy added 1. 4 million jobs in august. A little bit more from the hill newspaper. The Unemployment Rate declined from 8. 4 to 10. 2 . Falling below 10 for the First Time Since march. August is the first consecutive month of declining unemployment since april. More than 20 million americans lost their jobs pushing unemployment to post Great Depression highs of 14. 7 . The news today is that the Unemployment Rate dropped to 8. 4 and 1. 4 million jobs were added in july. Lets get back to our conversation about the voting processes and we will go back to our phones and talk to maria who was calling from atlanta, georgia. She says she is not going to vote. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host just fine. Go ahead. In 2016i did not vote and i dont plan to anymore. It dont seem as though anything is being accomplished. For obama if he was running. I am done with voting. When i vote, it puts a lot of people in office who make money and the majority still suffered. Stillm wage in georgia is seven dollars and something. No healthcare, no free education. Im not voting anymore. Host go head and respond, john. Guest i encourage people to vote. I think it is an important civic activity. It is true that your vote is not necessarily going to change the world in the way that you always ino rid there are many the way that you always want. Sometimes you are faced with two choices you dont really love. If you sit down and think which one would be the closest or the least worse, that is also an option. Host lets talk about the history of mailin voting. Is this something that started in the 1900s . Tell us about the history of voting in the united states. Guest we have little bits of voting by mail in the 19th century. We dont know a lot about it in normal times. We had a big burst in the 1864 election during the civil war. Most of the ablebodied male voters were soldiers in the field. There was a big effort to get them to vote. Starting in the 20th century, we started to see states adopt these absentee voting laws because of a mobile population. We should note that in the late 19th century, there was another reform which was very important and that was the secret ballot or the australian ballot. It used to be that you did not have privacy. You might walk in and people could see your red ballot or your blue ballot. They might punish you if you vote at the right way or the wrong way. We do away with that. We created the privacy of the ballot. That was a very serious matter for states. When they started to have new workers toallowing vote or people away from the polls to vote, they tried to preserve that privacy. That is why you saw up until the late 1970s, most states laws were restrictive. They only allow you to vote by mail if you absolutely needed to and if you had a compelling reason. Secondly, they tried to have the privacy protected by having a notary public or a witness requirement. The first time i voted when i was at college, i actually got a ballot and i headed to go to the registrar and show her my blank ballot and go on the corner and seal it up and then her signature saying that i voted privately. Nobody was over my shoulder, nobody pressured me. That became something of a hindrance to voting as we move along. In 1978, california was the first to say youre going to move to no excuse voting. Lets make this a convenience. About notaryess requirements. In can see the difference the states today. They have these privacy protections. It as aates i have seen way to really make voting more convenient for people and to do away with those sort of things. Different states are doing different things. But it comes from the history of what we were thinking back in the 19th century through the late 20th century. Host john, there is a lot of concern about the security and the accuracy of people who are voting absentee and voting by mail. One of our social media followers wants to know about what are the key components of voting by mail. How does the Election Office verify signatures on ballots sent in by mail . Guest it varies. I do think some of the states voting extensive mailin have a lot of experience with this. They have spent a lot of time on this. They train people on this. They have the technology to flag some issues. They will find signatures that dont match and will contact the voter to make sure to verify their identify their identity in some ways. There are some states that are good at it. It varies from state to state. I think the checking is not quite as extensive and could be better. But there are other ways in which we verify the voters. Some states require you to send in a copy of your id. Some states have other verifying information. Your address or perhaps a voter number or the last four digits of your Social Security number. There are some things that you provide that give confidence that you are you. There is that real issue of trying to make sure that the person who ascending the isson who is sending actually the person of your host. Host lets see if we can get more callers in. Lets talk to judy. Can you hear us . Caller yes i can. Host go ahead. Caller the reason im going to go vote is because im an 80yearold woman. I could go get my Lottery Ticket every day and i can go shopping, so i can go to vote. That is a privilege. Mother gets dressed up and i take her to vote every year and she voted because she said it was a privilege. If i get my Social Security check, it is sent to my mailbox. The Social Security administration sent us all leaders letters one time that it is safer to get your Social Security sent to the bank, not by mail. You cannot trust the mail. Some time ago, a lot of my mail was taken out of my mailbox and put into my neighbors mailbox. A brought it over wrapped in rubberband and my bills and everything were on that, my information. Just my mail out of my mailbox. Someone might have wanted to see what i was getting. Host go ahead and respond. Guest there are many people do prefer to vote in person. That will be a very important part of the election. There are different stakeholders about that as well. The caller mentioned also about the civic aspect. Act people see it as an of the Community Coming together and showing up and it is less anonymous than by voting by mail. I think there are some real differences. In my book, in normal times im a proponent of people voting early. Different views in different places. Some states have a different paradigm where they will vote by mail and of course we have the coronavirus which has changed some attitudes with more people wanting to vote, but certainly not all. Hopefully they will want to vote by mail. All of these components are important. Host once again for our pennsylvania voters, we want to yound you in pennsylvania can apply for your absentee ballot online and you have until october 27 at 5 00 p. M. To request that application. There is no early in person voting date and your mail in ballot must be received by november 3 at 8 00 p. M. Lets go to francis who was calling from lumberton, North Carolina and he plans to vote early. Good morning. I live right near the Election Office and i go up there and vote early absentee ballot. Host go ahead and respond, john. People do have a familiarity with where they go and that is one issue we will watch for. Be the same but with corona, there might be more changes. Go to check to make sure you are still voting in the same place. I think i took from the caller that she referred to the voting as absentee but she was showing up in person. When you go to your state, youre going to find that the terminology is not consistent. Some states what you would consider a mailin ballot early voting and sometimes it is the opposite. Check with your state and your polling place and make sure that is still the same and you are registered and casual to go and going there is still a good idea. Another question from one of our social media followers. The first question is, will poll workers be given ppe and the second question is what is being rolls for voter supposed inactivity . On the first one, many states are requiring ppe for poll workers. I guess that is universal. On the voter role, there is always an issue. The Registration System is the base for having people beyond on the rolls and hopefully be able to cast their ballot. The more inclusive those lists are, the better off we are. We have made Great Strides in improving over the years. Back in 2000, most of the state did not have a computerized list. All of the states to now. Some, not all states. I think there is progress on moving in that direction. There was always the challenge of when to do update and there are federal laws that limit them close toate the election. It is also necessary so we do lls upo keep our voter ro to speed. Check your Voter Registration. Not as many people have been going to the dmv. I think that is an issue where many people register that way or they change or confirm their registration that way. If you have not been there as much, getting online or contacting your local official and checking on your registration early is important. Host what if you do if you show up to vote on election day and your name is not on the list of people who can vote or you are waiting for a ballot in the mail and you never receive one for absentee or early voting . Case, andthe first most likely in the second case, you are likely to be offered a provisional ballot. If you believe you are registered and somehow you are being told you are not, there is a process by which you are given a ballot, you fill it out and it is put in an envelope. The determination after the fact will be where you really registered, did we make a mistake if you work. There are some places where you might be voting in the wrong place. Some states treat that differently than others. Some might try to send you to the right place. If you show up and there was a problem, you should ask for a provisional ballot and in many cases, you will be offered that and in many cases that will ultimately be counted. It might require you to go back to the polling place afterward to an election official and show an id or some information that was missing depending on the state. That provisional ballot process is there to safeguard if there are issues at the polling place that allow you to get a consideration of whether your vote should get counted or not. Host lets go to mike calling from beaverton, oregon who will vote by mail. Good morning. Caller good morning. My problem with the vote by mail thing is in the past i actually place andto a polling show up and i got a sense of community. I am in aent locale, townhouse which is by 450 other townhouses and everybody is segregated and we seem to be losing our sense of community. Caller,ike the earlier i think there are a lot of people who play to that, the civic aspect of voting is enhanced, especially by going on election day. 95 of us used to vote on monday and it was likely we would see our neighbors. There are some issues about the type of information you have. Perhaps voting early, you might vote before all of the debates are complete or be so before something happens. There are some issues with the civic aspect of voting. Many of people who vote by mail like it. They have found other ways to talk to their neighbors and study the issues. It is an issue that people who prefer voting in person do refer to as something that we dont have as much as we used to. Host once again, oregon is an all mailin ballot state. They dont have any early in person voting dates and their mailin ballot deadline will be at 8 00 p. M. On november 3. Lets talk to rick who was calling from new york. Rick is going to vote on election day. Good morning. Caller how are you doing today . Host just fine, go ahead. Caller i am taking the choice of voting in person and my experience is i spent 23 years in the army and a lot of times outside of the country. We did a lot of mailin balloting and we did not have the choice say the mail did not get there in time like you have when you go to a voting station to say look, they say you are not a registered voter and then you can challenge that. By relying on the mail outside of the country, we did not have that option. That is why i have elected to vote in person. Guest i do think there are some protections at the polling places. Some security and privacy protections there. If you are local or in the u. S. And you cast a vote by mail ballot, many places Election Officials will try to contact you if there are some problems with the envelope or if you did not fill out everything or your signature is problematic. That is not always possible for overseas voters. It is really very difficult for that to happen. There are some advantages of going in person. Many people are going to do it. I think our election is going to be run well at all stages. Be proactive no matter what you do. Make sure you check your your clay shin your location is right. Willny states, that plan include many people who will vote on election day or at an early vote center. Host in new york you can request an absentee ballot by mail or in person. If you are requesting it by mail, you have until october 22. If you are requesting it in person, you have until october 22. Your early imposing voting dates your early in person voting november 3. Til annie, good morning. Caller good morning. Host annie, go ahead. Caller this might be my first time voting by mail. I have not heard any information by mail in North Carolina. What i want to ask is have the printers been put back in the post office . Do we have drop boxes . I hear other states that have drop boxes but i never hear about or the carolina having drop boxes. Host lets talk about drop boxes. Guest i want to emphasize that some people might be going by mail for the first time. Anything you do for the first time, there are some challenges. Go to your local election official and ask or find information on the website on what to do. I dont know the answer to how extensive or the availability of drop boxes. It is sometimes a possibility to return your ballot to the polling place or the clerks office. I would go to your local or state Election Officials website or perhaps you can call and ask that question. Drop boxes, where they are available, are a good option for people who want to return there and and or absentee ballot they certainly will not miss the deadline if they drop it on dropbox the deadline the day before election day. Host you can apply for your absentee ballot online, you have to request by october 27 at 5 00 p. M. Your early voting dates are october 15 to october 31 and your mailin ballots must be postmarked by november 3. Mr. Biden good afternoon, folks