Transcripts For CSPAN3 David Becker 20240712

Funded the film was a manufacturer of a popular riot gun used to fire gas canisters. Watch Reel America Police Training Films tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Up next, joining us is david decker, founder and executive director of the center for election innovation and research here to talk with us about the Election Security and in particular also mailin balloting, mailin voting. David becker, thanks for being a part of the program. Thanks for having me, bill, tell us about your organization. Center for election intervention and research. What have you founded . Ive been in elections 22 years and worked many years as a Trial Attorney in the Justice Department and voting section of the Civil Rights Division and made my way to the trust ran election teams for some years and in 2016 went off and founded this center to continue the work im doing. We work with Election Officials across the spectrum. Blue and red states, states, ev between, to try to help them successfully run elections. We focused in the past on things like Voter Registration and making that process for efficient and have more integrity. We focused on election cybersecurity which is still an issue and since the pandemic weve been working closely with states to help them adapt to provide voters as many convenient and safe voting options as possible. How are states in general planning to adapt for the pandemic . Well, most states this is true regardless of where they are and whether theyre run by republicans or democrats, are trying to find ways to give voters options, to give voters ways they can vote that they can feel safe and that are convenient to them. This means expanded mail voting. Every state is going to see a Record Number of ballots received by mail. But it means expanded early voting. Finding appropriate voting sites for voting in the pandemic which means they need to be large enough to accommodate social distancing. And also making sure that Election Officials can recruit enough poll workers so staff those sites. Thats a major challenge for them in this era of covid19 where we need about a million poll workers in a president ial election. Were going to need a new generation of poll workers to fill that role so that at risk individuals dont have to serve in the polling places. Define for us, for our conversation, the difference between mailin voting and absentee voting. Thats easy. Theres no difference. Theyre about exactly the same thing. Theyre basically three types of mail voting in the United States. There is there are the a small number of states that do what we call universal mail voting. They send ballots to all registered voters. The only swing state is nevada which Just Announced it this weekend. Other states including states like utah, washington, oregon, et cetera. And these are states that are run by both republicans and democrats. Theyve been doing this in most cases for a long time. There are a handful of states that require mail voting. And in many of those states the Election Officials, both republicans and democrats, have said that covid19 fears of covid19 would count as an excuse in some of those states. The vast majority of states, including almost all of the battleground states, offer whats called no excuse mail voting or no excuse absentee voting. These are essentially the exact same thing. This is when a voter has to request a mail ballot to be sent to them specific for that election. That mail ballot at that application gets validated against the voters information on the file. If that checks out, the voter receives a mail ballot. They fill out the mail ballot and the envelope which has a lot of Verification Information that only the voter themselves would have and they can return it by putting it in the mail or delivering it to a dropoff location. Thats the way that voting is done in states like georgia, florida, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, et cetera. So its a very, very common thing. In 2016, about 1 in 4 ballots was returned by mail and were going to see more than that, obviously, this coming year. Our guest david becker talking about Election Security, votein ballots. 2027488000 is the line for republicans, 2027488001 for democrats, and independents 2027488002. Youve seen this study on mailin voting part of which says this, there are two major features of voting by mail that raise concerns. First, the ballot is cast outside the public eye and thus the opportunities for coercion and voter impersonation are greater. The transmission path is not as secure as traditional, inperson ballots. These concerns relate to ballots being intercepted and requested without the voters permission. States who have done a lot of mail voting have found that the risks its fair to say those risks exist. But theyre extremely rare. There are so many checks and balances in place on the ballots themselves, on the envelopes, on the applications, on the voter lists, that it would be exceedingly difficult for someone to commit fraud. When it happens, its almost always discovered. Its an easy way to get caught for voter fraud, to fill out a paper ballot application in the envelope and provide all of this documentary evidence that can demonstrate that you submitted a vote that you werent supposed. To of course you have to if you hope to get away it, you have to hope the person doesnt show up to vote. If they show up to vote, youre going to get caught. What republican Election Officials in utah, washington, oregon and many other states will tell you, there are several checks and balances in place. Voters who are unfamiliar with mail voting will have trouble filling out the envelope correctly or the ballot correctly and it could result in their ballot being rejected or one of their votes not being counted or the Postal Service will take too long to deliver the ballot in the first place and the voter may have to vote in person. Its not theres no perfect voting system. Every voter has to make their choices. Its very clear, a lot of voters are going to choose to vote by mail. There are states who have currently done and successfully done vote by mail exclusively . Exclusively isnt quite the right word. But there are states who do it almost exclusively. Well over 90 of their votes are mail ballots. Washington and oregon are the most notable. Both of them are run by republican secretaries of state. Colorado is probably next in line. Theyve been moving towards nearly all mail ballots for some time. Theyre well over 90 of their ballots are cast by mail. Hawaii is moving to all mail voting. Utah is moving to all mail voting for this election and they were at very high rates of mail voting. And even a state like california was on pace for about 75 of their ballots being delivered to voters by mail. So and then returned as voted. So its theres always an inpers inperson option, but states like those are nearly as close to 100 . The attorney general welcome barr testified before the house last week and was asked about the potential for voter fraud in the upcoming election. Lets take a listen. As attorney general of the United States, do you believe that this 2020 president ial election will be rigged . I have no reason to think it will be. President trump tweeted that the election will be rigged, but he also tweeted that when he was losing to Hillary Clinton and he tweeted that, the day after fox showed that he was losing to trump. But i dont want to be too political. Do you believe as the attorney general of the United States that mailin voting will lead to massive voter fraud . I think theres a high risks that it will. Do you ever vote by mailin ballot . Apparently i did once at least. But you believe that other people voting by mail could lead to massive fraud . No. What ive talked about, made very clear, im not talking about accommodations to people who have to be out of the state or have some particular need not to inability to go and vote. What im talking about is the wholesale conversion of election to mailin voting. You do understand that africanamericans disproportionally do not survive covid19, coronavirus i didnt hear the question. You are wear that black people disproportionately die from covid19, coronavirus, correct . Yes, i think thats right. And not that it would be the first time that africanamericans would risk their lives to vote in this country, to preserve its democracy, but the suggestion is that them having the ability to vote by mail would somehow lead to massive voter fraud. But i dont stick to that. I didnt say that. I just state what i think is a reality which is that if you have wholesale mailin voting, it increases the risk of fraud. But it doesnt make it likely. Thats all i said. David becker, the attorney general saying if you have wholesale mailin voting, the increased increases the likelihood for fraud. Do you agree with that . Absolutely not. I think i would really encourage the attorney general, he made these comments in the past. I would encourage him to talk to my former colleagues in the Justice Department about how mailin voting working and secretaries of state in his own party and the Lieutenant Governor of utah to find out the facts about this. States first of all, im not sure what he means by wholesale mail voting. In states with the largest percentage of mailin ballots, washington, oregon, utah, all run by republicans, there are many checks and balances in place. When fraud occurs, it occurs extremely rarely and its caught and prosecuted as it should be. Republican Election Officials in states like georgia, florida, ohio, have seen increased rates of mail balloting. And florida is very used to mail balloting. So there are many checks and balances in place. There are many protections. Republicans know this. Theyve been encouraging their voters to vote by mail, democrats are doing the same. Not every voter should be voting by mail. Its something that is a personal choice. Some voters who are very, very comfortable with paper ballots, with mail ballots who voted before should be voting by mail. Its very also important to note were going to need very significant inperson voting options so voters who need or want to vote in person can do so safely and conveniently. David becker, the founder and executive director for foundation for voter investigation and research. 2027488000 for republicans, 2027488001 for democrats and 2027488002 for independents. Caller thank you for taking my call. When i left california, we were gone for six years when i found out the people that bought our house, we were still would call me and still receiving election ballots. And i knew years before that the california was about as crooked as they could be. Nevada just recently passed laws where there are no boundaries, anybody can pick up whether related or not, they can go and pick up ballots from people that they dont know. And pass coronavirus to them. I live in a home now that i have lived in since 2009. Evidently, there were 11 people that lived here before me and i still havent been able to get their mail delivered to their correct address. I have tried my best to find these people. I have put in for change of addresses on these people. I have begged with the post office. And now, i have received mailin ballots for these people half of these people. So tell me that i cant fill out these. Im damn good at signatures. Yeah, i highly encourage you not to do that. If you fill out any ballots that come to your house in error, you will get caught. Theres a lot of private information that only the voter themselves would have. Its very unlikely no matter how good you are that you would know exactly how the person signed on their voter file when they first registered to vote, which is the signature its being matched against. You better hope that person doesnt show up to vote in person. If they do, they will know there was a fraudulent vote cast and they will find you and you will be prosecuted. There will be years that you spend in jail. There are protections against this in both federal and state law. With regard to ballots in states that do mostly mail balloting, it is important that the voter record be up to date. States are doing a better job of keeping their voter records up to date. Its something weve worked on with the states for some time and theres still some work to do. Even if a ballot gets delivered in error to a voter, if they try to vote that, they will be caught and they will be prosecuted. Its not the crime of the century. You will risk many years in jail and a very large fine for the right to cast one additional fraudulent election. And thats one of the reasons that americans take their elections so seriously and fortunately we see and there have been many studies on this by the bush Justice Department, by republican and democrat secretaries of state around the country and we have confirmed that there is very little voter fraud in the United States and thats a very good thing. Well go to our democrats line next. Claude is in river view, florida. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call, mr. Becker. Just a few points of interest that i would like for you to address. The president has been undermining our elections from asking russia to find hillarys emails, saying that the election was rigged even before it was even elected even before the vote. Now, hes continued that up until this point, still saying and undermining our elections. How do you square that with the pack of lies that hes told from building a wall and mexico is going to pay for it, how does that affect our elections . Thank you. It is its a big concern to Election Officials around the country. I talk to them about this regularly. Its not just democrats, its republicans as well. Voters are losing confidence in our elections and of course this has been the goal of our foreign adversaries like russia and china and north korea and iran for some time. Theyre all autocracies. They want citizens of a democracy to lose confidence in the system of government and in the elections that elect our leaders. And its very disappointing when any domestic actors or particularly our leaders use rhetoric, especially false rhetoric, that would lead to lowering the confidence of American Voters in our elections. I can tell you, Election Officials are working overtime right now. Theyve done more to increase the security of our elections in the face of foreign interference. Theyre trying to provide for the best possible voting experience even during the pandemic, even as they have very few resources and state budgets are drying up. And voters should feel confident that theyre vote is going to be counted properly. We all need to work harder to make sure that we encourage our fellow citizens to have confidence in our system and make sure we have a system that has integrity in it. If you look at polling, we should be concerned about diminished confidence in our elections and i can tell you if you have any doubts about that whatsoever, if you want to really learn about how elections work, volunteer to be a poll worker. Go to your county election website, state election website and volunteer to be a poll worker and see it from the inside. Youll do a Tremendous Service for your fellow citizens and you get a chance to see exactly how the system works and protects against any possible fraud or other problems. Certainly, though, a number of states must be concerned that those poll workers, there present in the past, are concerned about being there in person this time. Its pretty much a wellknown fact that many of the poll workers are Older Americans who can volunteer at the polls. Any sense of states that may be struggling to fill those positions as the election approaches . I think its safe to say every state is concerned about filling those positions. There are huge percentages who are an atrisk population and arent volunteering to be a poll worker again and probably shouldnt volunteer to be a poll worker again. Were going to need younger segments of the population to step up and volunteer to serve as poll workers and Election Officials are doing what they can to make sure that the polling sites are such to that people are minimizing any risk similar to what we might do in a Grocery Store, perhaps even better. Election officials are working to get plexiglas shields to that to separate people in the polling place. Theyre keeping polling stations far apart. Theyre having enough ppe and disinfecting supplies on hand and training their poll workers to use it during the day. I think what youll see, if you go to vote in person this fall, youll see that the polling places are safe, that Election Officials have done what they needed to do, even though they need a lot more resources to do it. Were seeing other elements of society stepping up to help. Im helping advise the more than a vote initiate that lebron james started and theyve been successful getting sports teams, nba teams but others, to also volunteer their facilities, arenas, which are very large and can accommodate social distancing, and large polling places, those are good places for Voting Centers that can be used in early voting and even on election day. Election officials are doing things theyve never had to do in the past, but trying to find ways to have a safe voting experience. Caller i live in a paper ballot state, washington, and i didnt take trump to lose my confidence in the paper Ballot System because my mother died and for four election cycles, ballots were delivered to her home. The family after one of the family bought her house, the family ended up getting the last ballot. The only way they could secure the system is to put i. D. Like, an i. D. Bar code on every one of them thats different so that no ballot could be duplicated any place in the state. Thats the only way that they could honestly secure the election and make sure that every address or every person has a particular bar code and that bar code is on their ballot and that bar code stays with them. Thats my opinion. So its interesting that you say that because thats actually exactly what they do in almost every state. Theres a unique coding on every ballot envelope to make sure that theres a that theres a one to one match between the envelope and the individual. Even if a voter who has passed away receives a ballot, and that happens sometimes, unfortunately, its rare. Sometimes the Election Officials dont get information about that. It would be exceedingly difficult for that person to for someone else to cast a ballot on behalf of that person because of all of the identifying information that would be needed including a signature that gets matched. I can tell you every single signature in Washington State as well as oregon and every state that does mail balloting gets checked. There are checks in place to make sure that that ballot would not be voted and were working hard washington has been at the forefront of this to ensure that the voter lists are accurate. One thing washington and oregon and some of these other states have is they have more mail contact with voters so if a voter has moved or a voter has passed away and people do their duty and write on the outside of the envelope that the person is no longer there, that gets back to the Election Officials and helps them maintain very, very accurate voter lists over time. Thats a very important aspect of it and states with a lot of mail voting have tend to have some of the most accurate voter lists. Here is gregory, democrats line. Caller good morning. I see the im a democrat, obviously, and i see that trump is trying to cripple the post office right before the election and then i also see that were you were talking about, you know, other people stepping in and other companies stepping in to try to help the problem. In my opinion the washington post, which has the very word post in it, they should team up with the United States Postal Service to do everything they can to fight back against an administration that is literally trying to put the post office out of business. You raise a very important point and thats the health of the Postal Service. Were going to need were seeing disturbing things out of the Postal Service right now and of course the delivery of mail ballots, theres no theres no choice here. There are going to be more mail ballots delivered this year than youve ever seen before and were going to need to them there early and successfully. This stresses a major point for voters this fall. Unlike past elections where a lot of voters would show up for a president ial election and think about it a day or two before the election, were going to need to all make a plan to vote this fall. Just like i used to go to the Grocery Store and not think about it, it could go every day, if i forgot something, i could linger in the aisles and hang out there as long as i want. I dont do that anymore. I make a plan and then leave so i can minimize my time inside. And the most important aspects are that, one, check your registration status. Go to your state site, register to vote if youre not there, make sure all of the information is accurate. A great place to start is canivote. Org. If you want to vote by mail, ask for a mail ballot as soon as you can. Do it very early. Even if the Postal Service has delays, youll get it before the election and you can decide whether to mail it back or drop it off. And then, three, vote early. If youre voting in person, early voting is available, vote as early as you can, its going to be really important to make a plan for this election cycle for every voter. This tweet says, my mailin ballot is in my mailbox today waiting to be picked up by my mailman. President ial primaries are due by august 11st. This one says, if trump spent half the time helping mailin voting, we would be ensured a safe and secure election. Are all mailin ballots just sent to registered voters with their name on it . Yes. Thats the only way they can be sent. The Election Officials need to have a name and address on file and what they do is they send ballots out to a specific name and address. Theres almost always coding on the outside of that envelope. Theyre printed on special paper with special inc. And each ballot is assigned to a particular voter. Its not like ballots are just available for pickup by any place by anyone. The only place someone can pick up a ballot that hasnt been addressed for them is at a specific polling location for people to go in person to vote and they need to go through a checkin process where theyre validated. Every ballot is addressed to a particular individual at a particular address based on what the voters record says. On that check in process, a concern raised by jim, if my Voter Registration card has my 1972 signature, it doesnt look anything like my current signature. Signature matching is done very well. And one of the challenges that exists with mail voting is were seeing in states with less familiarity that a lot of ballots get rejected. Thats more of a risk than a fraudulent ballot occurring, that someone someones ballot will be flagged and not counted initially because the signature doesnt match, for instance, or something was not fully filled out on the outside of the ballot envelope. Almost every state has a notice and cure provision. Theyre supposed to contact you and give you some time to fix the problem. You can come in and prove your identity, for instance, and confirm that the ballot was yours. And that will enable you to have the ballot counted. If you have any doubt about this, a great way to vote is early in person. Your identity is validated before youre given a ballot. Youre confirmed to be who you are, you get a ballot, and you vote and that ballot goes into the tabulator. People ask me how i prefer to vote and i vote early in person. Its the most convenient for me. Im confident that i can do so safely where i vote and i know that if there are any issues with my voter record or anything that doesnt check out, ill be able to deal with it at that time with human beings at the polling place. Does your group does your organization favor voting voter i. D. Laws . We take no position on voter i. D. Laws. There are different voter i. D. Laws around the country based on how states operate. We think given the need for safe and convenient voting that states should be thinking about how integrity of the ballot, which is important, balances out with access today ballot for those voters and every state is going to make a different decision on that. Here is linda in tennessee, independent line. Caller yes. I dont have no confidence in it because now a black woman in ohio, she voted three times for her brothers and uncle, and then a white woman went and voted and one statement right across the border, did they get put in jail or whatever . Was that in your locality there, linda . No. It was in ohio. I see. I seen it on the tv. And she even admitted to it. Any familiarity with that . No. Most of these claims of voter fraud are mistaken or, you know, like ive said before, there are occasional instances, theyre almost always caught and prosecuted. The secretary of state of ohio is a republican and that office has been held by republicans for some years. They do a remarkable, remarkably good job of identifying potential fraud and investigating and prosecuting it. They put out a report after every single major election. You can go onto their website and look at the 2018 report and 2016 report. And what theyll show is that the percentage of voter fraud that theyve detected as existing in ohio is measured in the thousandths of a percentage point. Thats potential fraud. Not even convicted and prosecuted fraud. I encourage you to ask the secretary in ohio, who i know will share that view. President trump raised concern on a mail in race in new york in his News Conference yesterday. The headline says why President Trump is calling for a revote in a primary election. On monday he suggested that a democratic primary in new york should undergo a revote. Its been six weeks since the election took place and there are no declared winners in new yorks 12th Congressional District which includes parts of manhattan, brooklyn and queens and the 15th district which includes the west bronx. The president saying i think you probably have to take the mosley race and run it over again, referencing the sitting congresswoman from the 12th district. And this is a small race. Theyre six weeks into it now and they have no clue whats going on. What is going on in those races, david becker . The officials are doing what they should be doing. The New York New York is a state that does not have a lot of experience with mail voting and voters have chosen to request mail ballots at higher rates than ever before due to the pandemic most likely. And Election Officials are validating every single one of those ballots before they count them. This is how we protect against potential fraud. This is how we demonstrate to anyone who is thinking about voter fraud that they will get caught. It took six weeks to get to to get to the point in november and december of 2000 where we were in florida with president bush defeating Vice President gore and, you know, i ask people with their partisan lens, we look through these things from the perspective of who do we want to win and whats going to benefit our party. But whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Would we have wanted to ask for a revote in florida in 2006 weeks after the election and Election Officials trying to do their jobs. Weve seen close elections in other places. I think what were seeing in new york and what weve seen in a lot of other places, Election Officials doing their jobs under challenging circumstances and they will reach a determination on the final count there in new york and we should give them the time to do so. To North Carolina on our democrats line, howard. Caller top of the morning to you. Good, good program. Look, i you know, im not a person that looks at color or white, black. If you treat me like a person, i treat you like a person. But so far, i heard three white women say that they can do good signatures, i heard one said it was coming to their mothers home and they could do what they wanted to it. And i heard one say that a black person got caught and she admitted it. You could do it, but youre going to get caught if that was true in ohio. This is the thing with me. All my life, every since ive been voting, ive been going in there. But this year you have to ask for an application first. This is whats going to lock you in with your signature now if you waited ten years before you voted before again. But that application, once the candidates receive who theyre going to have as their running mate, like biden, you would get your ballot. You can send that ballot in as soon as you fill out out and youre already in there. I want to ask this question, how many people do you think that right now this year, right in georgia or even in kentucky, louisville, how many people, there was a mass of people trying to go inside of there, how many people do you think was discouraged and turned away and didnt get a chance to vote at all . David becker . You raise a good point, which is that in the vast majority of states, including all of the battleground states, there are multiple levels of validation. Someone has to go through the process of actually applying for a mail ballot. Theres a signature on that or other personal information thats validated to confirm the ied before someone can even receive a mail ballot and theres a second level of validation that occurs when the ballot is returned. And of course youre exactly right, we need to be concerned in a pandemic where people are worried about their health, where we might have fewer polling places and fewer poll workers, we have to be concerned that every eligible voter has a convenient way to vote. There have been some challenges with that where there have been a lot of polling places closed and not enough poll workers and there have been some success stories. Louisville is somewhat of a success story. They used a large arena with a lot of parking around it, and thousands voted that day in that very large structure and they and very few lines. I think everyone got out of there in about 15, 20 minutes. Thats very good. It was probably not so great that that was the only place to vote during the primary in jefferson county, kentucky. But were going to see Something Different in november, im confident. If you look at other states. If you look at North Carolina, kentucky, pennsylvania, florida, georgia, et cetera, Election Officials are working hard to secure enough sites to make sure there are more sites available, even if its not as many as we might normally see in a president ial election because smaller sites are not appropriate right now because we cant socially distance in them or sites that weve used in the past like Senior Centers where there are too many people at risk. There are probably going to be fewer sites. But hopefully Election Officials are going to find ways to have enough of them and have them convenient enough for people to reach. Its a major concern for all of us working on elections including Election Officials around the country and were right to be focusing on it. We need to make sure that people feel they can vote safely and get to a polling place conveniently. Lets hear from william in orange park, florida, on the republican line. Caller i got one question for him. Why didnt he come out two days after Stacey Abrams said that all the voting was fraud and tell her about his wonderful system . And why would anybody in their right mind want to vote early so s so without listening to the debates, where you can hear if biden screws up or not . First of all, there are a lot of people who already know who theyre voting for. Im guessing the caller already knows who hes voting for. Whether you vote early or not is not going to make a difference. There are voters who will want to see debates and every voter needs to make that choice by themselves. Whenever anyone of either party spreads allegations that we shouldnt trust Election Results or that they cant trust Voting Technology or a process like early voting or mail voting, honestly, theyre doing the work of our adversaries who are diminishing our confidence in our elections. This is true across the political spectrum. Ive been consistent in talking about that. But i know that we all want to feel confident in the Election Results. Voters should vote in the way that they choose. They should have options. If they want to vote early, they should vote early. If they want to vote by mail, they should vote by mail. If they want to vote on election day and wait, they should vote on election day. The more people who vote early, the less the crowds will be on election day and thats going to be important for managing a safe environment. I want to take a look at a headline that says the Nevada Senate okayed mail in election bill on a partyline vote. The president tweeting about that, not happy with it in this tweet in a late night coup, the governor made it impossible for republicans to win the state. Post office could never handle the traffic without preparation using covid to steal the state. See you in court. Whats he talking about, see you in court . Is the federal government challenging that decision . I dont know if he means the federal government or the campaign. Obviously the democrats and republicans have armies of lawyers ready to litigate and theyre doing so. The Trump Campaign has litigation going on in several states, pennsylvania comes to mind. The parties are going to take their relative positions in court and well see. I will say this, when theres partisan activity in the legislature, i dont think thats very good for voter confidence and weve seen it on both sides. The Republican Legislature tried to take restrict the ability of their republican secretary of state in iowa to offer more choices to voters and i dont recall the president saying anything bad about that. I think what we need to do is trust the election professionals here. The election professionals, the secretaries of state, the county Election Officials know whats best for their voters and theyre thinking of their voters first. Thats going to be very, very important here. Nevada is a state where theyve handled a large volume of mail ballots in the past. They have experience in doing that. Other states, its going to be much harder to handle the same volume of mail ballots. A state like arizona which is over 80 mail balloting already, is going to be ready to handle larger amounts of ballots as opposed to so other states. Different states are going to be in different positions and we need to respect that. The main thing is, we need to offer voter options and thinking of the voters first. If were thinking about what outcome we want first, were not going to be serving the voters during this pandemic. A couple more quick questions for you, this one a text from early in georgia who asks, will ballots will rejected if dropped off with no postmark. It depends on the state. If theyre dropped off by a deadline, almost every state that i know of, if theyre dropped off before the polls close on election day, regardless of whether they have a postmark or not, they will be counted. In fact, in states are large numbers of mail voting, oregon, washington and others, this might be intuitive, the majority of ballots are physically dropped off, not returned by the mail. Its a really good way, if you prefer to vote in the comfort of your home, if you requested a mail ballot early enough, its a good way to ensure that your ballot is given to Election Officials where it will be counted. The secretary of state of michigan is highly encouraging people right now. They have a primary today going on and shes encouraging voters to drop off their mail ballots that they received in the mail. Dropping off ballots is a wonderful thing to do. Make sure you get it done by election day. Larry is in st. Louis, missouri. Democrats line. Caller my question is, does the November Ballot have to be notarized in order to be received . And i encourage everyone to do mailin ballot. Thank you. Okay. Theres only a small handful of states that require a notary, a few other states that require some kind of witness signature, some states have waived that requirement for this upcoming election, i think alabama is one of the states that has a note ri requirement for instance. Its very rare. The message i can send to everyone out there is, read the outside of the mail ballot envelope very carefully when you get it. Before you request a mail ballot, confirm what the requirements are. It might be if youre in a state where a notary is required, you might decide, well, its just as easy for me to vote early and in person, if thats offered and that might be a good way for you to vote. You each have to make decisions based on your own circumstances and what you feel comfortable with. But make those decisions early. Even if you decide not to vote early, but make the decision on how youre going to vote early so you have a plan in place and you have a backup plan in place, just in case your ballot doesnt come or if Something Else changes, if theyve increased the number of early voting days and hours as texas announced it was going to do. Make a decision as early as possible. David becker of the center for election innovation and research. Look forward frto hearing from u again. Thanks, bill. Were joined by dr. Arthur evans to talk about that associations latest survey. Their survey on stress in the time of covid19. Dr. Evans, welcome to the program once again. Thank you. This is volume three of your survey. Tell us why you did the survey initially and what did you find different this time around . Sure. Weve been doing the stress in America Survey since 2007 and its to get a handle on what the stress levels are in the country. We know that stress is relate today a lot of our physical outcomes as well as Mental Health outcomes and so weve been tracking on that and since the pandemic, weve been doing monthly waves, pulse surveys to see how our stress levels are being affected by the pandemic. The survey is available at apa. Org. A number of your survey delves into a number of very Current Issues including the aftermath of the killing of george floyd on may 12th, the protests and the disturbances and unrest in cities across the country. Tell us about that. We did ask about that and what we found is that about 60 of americans are concerned about Racial Discrimination and have concerns about some of the reports around Police Brutality against communities of color, africanamericans in particular. We found that africanamericans are experiencing a significant amount of stress, and that stress has gone up over the last several months. When we first asked that question back in may, about 42 of africanamericans were reporting that they were filling stress related to Racial Discrimination and weve seen a steady increase to 67 of people reporting that. And then finally we also found that theres some good news in all of this in that even though 60 of americans are concerned about some of these issues we also found were live for a News Conference with the spacex crew dragon. Speaking