 Hello everyone. Thank you for joining and welcome to a last-minute candidate conversation presented by Move Texas, the reliable revolutionaries, and now cast San Antonio. With only a few days left until election day, we've invited candidates for Bear County Commissioner and Texas Judicial Races for a political conversation. Tuesday night we held our first event, a debate between candidates for the Alamo College Board of Trustees and Bear County Sheriff, and tonight since the candidates are speaking, are running in separate races, or at least for different precincts, we'll be having more of a conversation just about the issues, the seats candidates are running for, and the importance of voting in downed ballot races. So I'm Aaron Arguello. I'm Advocacy Organizer at Move Texas. Move is a non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization building power and underrepresented youth communities through civic education, leadership development, and issue advocacy. And I'm here with Josie from the Reliable Revolutionaries. Josie, you want to introduce yourself and the organization? Thank you very much. My name is Josie Garcia, Community Advocate and Leader of Reliable Revolutionaries. We're a community driven, action-based civil rights organization that stands against racial and economical injustices in San Antonio and the surrounding areas. Our mission is to engage young voters to turn protest to policy by encouraging civil engagement in local and national politics, and by using their voices to help make sustainable change in our futures. Thanks Josie, and we are partnering with Nowcast San Antonio on this stream. Nowcast is a trustworthy non-partisan news organization whose mission it is to promote an inclusive civic conversation. We've had the pleasure of working with them before on candidate forums, you know, in person and in before times, and we're very happy to be doing this new type of a candidate forum with them now. So Josie, would you like to introduce our first set of candidates? Yes, tonight our first set of candidates is Ms. Christine Hortek, who is running for County Commissioner of Precinct Number 3, and also we have Mr. Gabriel Lara running for County Commissioner for Precinct 2. So just as a quick explanation and or refresher for folks, Commissioner's Court is the overall managing and governing body of Bear County. It consists of the county judge and for commissioners. Each commissioner represents a quarter of the population in Bear County, and the Commissioner's Court is responsible for budgetary decisions, tax and revenue decisions, and all personnel decisions, except for certain positions which are either elected or appointed. The court also appoints and monitors the actions of all county department heads, other than those headed by elected officials. So to get us started, we'll just do a couple opening statements. You will each have two minutes to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to represent your precinct. So Mr. Lara, we'll start with you. First of all, thank you for giving me this opportunity. My name's Gabriel Lara, and I was born and raised in South San Antonio. Six brothers, three sisters grew up with government assistance. We had the cheese, the butter, and others. And we also have programs along the way that helped us. There were not handouts, but hand-me-up type of programs that we had, such as Sonia and Distributive Education. I joined the Navy right out of high school, where I served four and a half years as a Navy corpsman in San Diego. I returned home and spent the next 34 years as a firefighter paramedic. The first five years in fire suppression and the next 29 years with San Antonio EMS Division, traveling the streets of south and west sides of San Antonio, including unincorporated areas. My whole life has been about serving my fellow man, also as a Boy Scout leader, Girl Scout leader, CYO coach, YMCA coach, and volunteer with my church. Great. Thank you so much. Ms. Hortix, you want to please share a bit about yourself and why you want to represent precinct too? Sure. Thank you. I'm really glad to see that the organizations have come together to really inform younger voters. I think that's a voting base that we really need to motivate and encourage them to come out and vote because it's such an important aspect of politics and younger voters need to be involved. I was born and raised here in San Antonio. I went to Brackenridge High School. After Brackenridge, I moved up to Boston for college. While I was there, I worked as a congressional aide for Senator Ted Kennedy. When I worked for the senator, most of what I did was Veterans Affairs casework. I helped with their medical appointments, prescriptions, their benefits, that sort of thing. It's when I was working with the senator's office that I really realized that I wanted to do some sort of service as part of my career. After I left the senator's office, I moved back to San Antonio and I went to St. Mary's Law School. I graduated in 2005, so next month it'll be 15 years. I opened my own practice and for the most part of the last 12 years or so, my practice is focused on children's court where I represent parents and children in abuse and neglect cases. It's doing that type of work that I really get to see a lot of the issues that many in the community are facing. I enjoy doing that work. I enjoy helping my kid clients and my parent clients rehabilitate themselves, get their kids back. It's because of that work that I opted to run for commissioners' court. I wanted to be in a position where I could help and make a difference in more people's lives as opposed to one or two families at a time. Thank you, Ms. Hortick. So our first question. Admits the time of COVID where many San Antonio, San Antonians and residents of Bear County are struggling to find meaningful employment and are really having a hard time paying their bills. If elected to the commissioners' court, what will you do to ensure that Bear County residents will have relief from COVID-19? We'll start with you, Mr. Lara, please. We have to make sure that they have access to easy access to this CARES money that's coming in. From what I hear, there's been a lot of red tape in trying to get those funds. Some are rejected. Some get it. Some don't. And with that being said, we need to work on getting a fund set aside that will prepare us for the next event, whether the event is similar to this or another event where we're going to have so many unemployed individuals. With technology, the way it is today it should be much easier to get people with the help that they need, but it doesn't seem to be happening. And I'm not sure about the numbers or the percentages that Precinct One got versus the other Precincts, but we need to do a better job of getting, making it easier for people to get access to these CARES funds. Thank you, Mr. Lara. Ms. Hortick, the same question for you. At a time where the COVID-19 pandemic has put many Bear County residents out of work and struggling to pay their bills, what will you do to ensure that Bear County residents receive the relief that they need from being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Well, when when COVID hit and we got that CARES Act money, Bear County got about $79 million. And I really liked what the commissioners did and that basically they set money aside in the TRAM program for housing relief. They had, you know, a bucket of money for job, job training and employment. Then they had another bucket of money for small businesses. So I really liked the idea of allocating these this money into different buckets. But what was happening as Mr. Lara was saying, there were lots of people who applied for benefits and they were rejected. And so the commissioners have been trying to figure out why they were rejected. Was it a situation where they didn't have proper documentation to qualify for a certain position? Those types of things. I think going forward it's going to be important to work with the city because the city also has very similar programs because the city and the county overlap. The county's programs will take care of the people that live in the unincorporated areas as well as the municipalities. So I think we I think as a county we learned a lot about what worked and what didn't work with the initial CARES Act money that was coming. And I think we need to, you know, kind of sit back and take a look at what worked and what didn't and try and figure out a way to be more efficient with the with county dollars so that we can help more people. Great. Thank you so much. So with the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color under a close critical reexamination in the moment, what changes, if any, would you like to see in the Bayer County Sheriff's Department? And Ms. Hortix will start with you on this one. Thank you. Well, since the commissioners, I guess, primary way of helping is in funding, whether they will allocate funds for a program or take funds away. I think the commissioner's court have taken very positive steps with working with the sheriff to come up with a new new training mechanisms for his for the officers. I was a fan. I'm really glad that they started this new program. They allocated I think a million and a half dollars for the new program that when mental health calls come in, mental health expert will be sent out along with with a medical expert to help deescalate a situation before law enforcement get involved. So I think it's going to be very important for commissioners court to actively work with Joe Gonzalez, the district attorney and Sheriff Salazar to make sure that everyone's on the same page. And the commissioners court's role I think is a support system. And so if there are good programs that need to be implemented, commissioner's court needs to fund those. Great. Thank you very much, Mr. Lara, the same question for you. What changes, if any, would you like to see in the Bayer County Sheriff's Department? As Ms. Wartek mentioned, the $1.5 million dollars. The program is in conjunction with the group called Strack here in San Antonio, South Texas Regional Area Council. I worked during my time with San Antonio Fire Department on different projects. So I believe having them on board is going to go a long way on actually solving some of these issues that we have. They've been able to follow with the technology that they have and the software and devices that our paramedics have, they can now follow a patient from point, whether it's via the point of pickup to dismissal from the hospital. So knowing that I'm very confident that they're going to be able to do a good job working with BCSO on some of these issues. But again, we have to make sure that the program is properly funded. And it's not something that we do one year and then just forget about it. This is something that we need to follow through and have it funded on a continuous type basis. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ms. Wartek, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused counties across the country to reimagine what voting looks like. Harris County invested nearly $30 million in this federal election. And as a result, they've been hitting record numbers for voter turnout. Whereas here in Bear County, we funded it significantly less. And if elected, will you commit to increasing the funding for the Bear County elections department and pushing for policies like 24 hour drive through polling locations? Yes, I was watching commissioner's court meetings where they were talking about investing more in preparing for the elections. And the commissioners commissioners essentially gave the elections department a blank check to do whatever it was that they needed to get done. I don't think enough was done. I mean, I understand it's difficult is COVID. There's a lot of logistics involved. But this is such an important election. I really think that more needed to be invested in increasing polling sites, having in longer hours. Because, you know, every time we put some sort of, you know, all of these things are our potential barriers to people voting. And things are it's already hard enough to vote in Texas as it is. And I think local government really needs to step up and make it as accessible as possible for its citizens. Thank you, Ms. Hurtek. Now, Mr. Lara, same question for you. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many counties here within Texas, excuse me, have been caused to reimagine what voting looks like. Harris County has been given a $30 million federal election money to ensure that they're able to get record numbers of voters within their their county. Bear County was given significantly less. If you are elected to the commissioner's court, will you commit to push for policies like drive-thrus and 24 hour polling locations, as well as an increase in funding for the Bear County election system? I've been I've been talking about voter suppression for the last four years, but it's been falling on deaf ears. I've been unincorporated Bear County, by the way. There are no voting early voting locations out here. There never has been in the 20 years that I've been out here. There is one. This is West Bear County. There is one early voting location in unincorporated Bear County, and that's over at Southside High School in South Bear County. So we need more polling sites. Yes. We need easier access. I have to drive into town to go vote. It's not a problem because I'm not working to polls anyway, but others for others, it is. So yes, on the polling sites, yes, two more hours. We need to get it done. And like I said, unincorporated Bear County for just been ignored. Thank you, Mr. Lara. So with the hurricanes affecting the Texas coasts and the fire spreading across California, we are being constantly reminded that climate change is real and that we are in dire need to do something to combat it. Mr. Lara, if elected, how would you like to see the county address the issue of climate change? Oh, you got me on that one. I'm not so sure we can do something about climate change, but I know we can do something about air quality. You go to any school and you go and you look at the nurses cabinet and you see all these inhalers in here. So you know, definitely there's a problem with the air quality. So with that being said, there has to be a solution and I'm not and I'm not the one to talk about it. And I need perhaps people like y'all to help me with this because we have this issue with the air quality that we need to resolve. And again, I don't know about how we can possibly affect climate change. I'll need I'll need your help on that one because I don't know what possibly you could do about climate change, but I think we could do something about air quality, though. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Miss Hortix, if elected, how would you like to see the county address the issue of climate change? I think there's a couple of ways that the county can have some sort of positive impact. One of the things that the county commissioners do is they provide tax incentives and abatements for businesses it within the county. And I think one of the things that they could do is they could put some sort of environmental limitations or regulations on the buildings that are built, the areas that are developed for business, for example, they may require that a certain percentage of the area be covered with native plants or that the certain types that I guess runoff water is the source for for watering vegetation in the area. You know, type of things like that where the commissioners can put incentives in place for these businesses that are going to be looking for their own monetary incentives. And that way, you know, businesses get the incentives they want. The county gets employment and employees that we desperately need. And I think that's one way we can do that. Building on what Mr. Lada said about air quality, I think one way we could do that is working with via. I think we need to improve mass transit in San Antonio and Bear County. And I think is we get a better mass transit system in place that will take vehicles off the road. And I think that will also make an improvement. Thank you. Now we have a question from the audience. And Mr. Lada, we're going to start with you. Overdose deaths have increased by 30 percent this year. Methodon is a proven prevention method and grants have dried up. What will you do to ensure that anyone in Bear County who wants treatment can receive treatment? Well, we definitely need to get the funding for it. I mean, 29, excuse me, 34 years, I've seen it. And it's not something that just happened recently. This has been going on for some time. And for what why has it gone to the epidemic level? We haven't done enough. I certainly approve of if we spent too much on other types of programs. Here's some examples. So we got these multimillion dollar garages downtown, 14 million dollars to renovate Alameda, $500,000 to display artifacts, $900,000 for kiosk. We have the funds for programs like that, programs that actually make a difference. We it was rare to go a shift without having some kind of opioid overdose. So yes, we need to help. And yes, I will help. Thank you, Mr. Lada. Mrs. Hortik, the same question for you. With overdose deaths increasing by 30 percent this year in Bear County, methadone is a proven preventative and grants have dried up. What will you do to ensure that Bear County residents suffering from addiction have has access to methadone? Well, it's one of those things that I see methadone as a tool that helps a lot of my parent clients and CPS cases that they're trying to get off drugs and trying to rehabilitate themselves and get themselves on the right track. And as Mr. Lada said, there's a lot of money being spent on things other than the community themselves. I think Bear County really needs to reevaluate where we spend our money and really focus on investing our resources in our in our own people. And part of that is going to be helping those with with drug addictions. Another component to that I think that's very important is mental health treatment because I know a lot of my clients, they will turn to drugs in an effort to self medicate because they don't have access to proper care. They can't get appointments. The appointment, the wait times are too long. And so they they find other ways to help themselves. And so I think if we concentrate on providing substance abuse counseling and treatment programs along with mental health treatment programs, I think those two will work simultaneously and we can see a big improvement in the community. Thank you so much. New audience question. If you'll hang in there for a second, I'll get this in. Alrighty, so another question coming in from the audience also related to methadone treatment. Would either of you push to provide methadone treatment to inmates in the county jail so that when they are released, they are in treatment rather than back to the streets and back to old habits? Mr. Lara, we'll start with you on that one. Yes, sir. Receivitism is a big issue. I don't have a problem providing some kind of treatment. Anything to help keep these individuals from going back into the system. And part of the problem that going a bit back further is to keep them from going into this system. The system anyway is to have programs and start in high school. Like I had programs like Sonia and DE and BOE programs that teach them a skill. And I think this would go a long way in keeping people from getting to the system in the first place. But yes, I would. Thank you. And Ms. Hartix, the same question to you. Would you push to provide methadone treatment to inmates in the county jail to reduce recidivism? I would also support that, as Mr. Lara said, it's going to be very important. Anything we can do to help inmates keep them from coming back. We don't want that to happen. And so again, that goes back into investing in our community and in ourselves. And so if working with the sheriff's office, they could work on a program like that, and then they could work in conjunction with Center for Healthcare Services so that when an inmate that's potentially doing this program is released, they have an appointment date. They know exactly where to go. They have that support system so that they have the best chance of success. So yes, I would support that program. Thank you both very much. There's one more question coming in. How about if I read it while I'm putting it in here at the same time? If elected, would you invest money into specialty courts like Judge Rosie Gonzalez and Drug Court in order to rehabilitate instead of only incarcerate? And we can start with Miss Hortix on that one. Sure. Yes, I support specialty courts. As an attorney, I've worked in the there's different types of specialty court. So I mainly do CPS work. So there's an early intervention, specialty court that works with parents with children under the age of three. There is a CPS specialty court that deals with drug addiction and drug issues. And those types of programs are very intensive. And so they have good rates of success. And it's one of those things that if we can continue to do specialty courts and replicate that those models, I think that that gives our our clients and community members the best chance of success. So I think they are a good idea to do. It's also important that we look at whether there's a great enough need for a particular specialty court, because at the same time as a commissioner, we need to worry about where our resources are going. And we want to make sure that we use them efficiently. But overall, specialty courts have made a big difference down at the courthouse and and they're definitely something that we need to continue to utilize. Thank you, Mr Lara, if affected, if elected, sorry, would you invest money into specialty courts in order to rehabilitate rather than only incarcerate? I'm with with Miss. This will be quick. I'm with Miss Horte, and I believe that Miss Judge Rosie has done an awesome job. So the answer is yes. And there is another question from the audience. Mr Lara, do you support bail reform here in Bear County? Ma'am, you're going to have to tell me what that entails. I don't. Um. I'm not sure. I would like to expand on that. That would be fun. Right now, what we're having a problem with within our Bear County jail systems is a problem with individuals who are being arrested and forced to pay high levels of bail. Now, knowing when certain demographics of our county are affected by poverty under the poverty level, as well as suffer from financial insecurities, it is almost impossible for a lot of our lower income citizens to get meaning to get bailed out of the jail. And so in turn, they have to spend a lot more time there than somebody who could afford to post bail from from the jail. So what we're asking is, are you ready to support a reform of the bail system that will make it easier for Bear County residents who are arrested to post bail despite their economic status? With your help, yes. And with that being said, I think 40 percent of the budget goes to the goes to the jail. So why are you going to put people with these minor type of incidents and and keep them in jail because they can't afford to get out? Again, I'll need. You also help on this because I don't know exactly what all entails. But I believe it's just what you're saying, Ms. Garcia, that something needs to be done and and I'm with you. Thank you, sir. Ms. Hortic, same question for you. Are you open to committing yourself to helping us with bail reform? Again, a lot of our lower income Bear County residents who are arrested for minor infractions often spend longer times in jail because of their economic and financial insecurities. This is an injustice that is plaguing our community. And are you committed to help us remedy this? Yes, I am. Bail reform is something that that I know county of some of some county officials have been working on for years trying to improve the system because we need to have a balance. We need to make sure that we don't have we we don't have nonviolent offenders taking up space in the jail. It's expensive per day to have an inmate in the jail. You know, if a you know, a kid gets picked up for a joint that he gets caught with that that kid is not a violent person. He doesn't need to be sitting in jail. He needs to be at home. He needs to be going to school. He needs to be able to work. That sort of thing. He's he's not the type of individual that the county needs to have locked up. So I think it's very important that we don't use someone's economic status to essentially put them in an even worse position if it happens that they get arrested because one of the things that happens is sometimes innocent people get arrested. And so if you have someone who is living paycheck to paycheck, they get arrested. They sit in jail for a couple of days, maybe longer if they can't get bailed out. You know, basically, then you have someone who is a non offender or sorry, a nonviolent offender sitting in jail costing the taxpayers money while at the same time, you know, this person may end up losing their job because they didn't have the money to post bail. And it just it just causes this this cycle and it just build and build. And that's something that we definitely need to improve. And there's been a lot of improvement lately, but there's still more work that needs to be done. Thank you, Ms. Hortik. Thank you. So we have one more question from the audience watching, which is can we get a commitment to end the use of solitary confinement and extended and sell time, which has proven to cause mental deterioration and stress and citizens, many of whom already suffer from mental illness? Ms. Hortik, we'll go ahead and start with you. OK, that's something I don't know if the Bear County Jail utilizes that that practice. I'm not sure that's something I'd have to ask Sheriff Salazar about. But I think it's that's a cruel practice. And there are other ways that we can house our inmates without subjecting them to that sort of abuse, essentially. And the focus needs to be more on trying to rehabilitate and treat those that have some sort of mental illness or issues that have led them to be in that position. But like I said, that's something that I would need to check with Sheriff Salazar to see if that's something that's currently being utilized. Thank you, Mr. Lara, would you commit to end the use of solitary confinement and extended and sell time, which again, it's proven to cause mental deterioration and stress in citizens, many of whom already suffer from mental illness. I didn't know that was that was actually happening. But it is. Yes, but it's also is it happening to protect them from others? That's the case, and I'm not sure what we're going to what we're going to do. But if it's just for a means of punishment, then, yeah, we need to find other means. But if it's a mental issue, here's the problem with the jail also is it's being used to house mental patients. And I know we got a few hundred million dollars to work on the state hospital. But I'm not sure exactly when that's set to be completed. But, you know, using the jail as a place to hold mental patients is not it's not the right thing to do. Thank you, Mr. Lara. Josie, would you like to ask the final question we have here? Yes, thank you, Mr. Lara, do you have any closing comments and please tell the people why it's important to vote in the county commissioners race? I think that so the problem is commissioners court has been the county's best kept secret long enough. They managed two billion dollars without hardly any input from the community. You get one opportunity to give your your voice from the budget for the following year. And it usually occurs the week before the budget's approved. It's important that you know who your commissioner is. It's important that your elected officials are out in the community asking for your input. It's important that our elected officials are talking to people like you for input or HOS or nonprofits or military organizations. It's just been going on too long. It's so. You need to vote and you need to know who you're voting for and you need to know what commissioners courts about. Even to this date as I'm out there holding my sign up at the polling sites. Oh, what does commissioners court do? And many people just don't know. So we need to bring transparency to the court and make ourselves available, be transparent, bring accountability. Again, two billion of our tax dollars. It's time that you decide you say how are we going to spend that money. So anyway, I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mr. Lara, Miss Hortick. Same question. Do you have any closing comments and why do you find it important to vote in the county commissioners race? Well, when it comes to voting, a lot of people are really excited about about the presidential candidates, right? And it's important that people realize that, yes, that's very important race to vote for. But the impact that they're actually going to feel on their average day to day life is going to be based on decisions that they make regarding down ballot candidates. So your tax assessor, your commissioners, your your sheriff, your judges, those those types of positions. And they may not be as exciting as the presidential candidates, but it's it's crucial that people become informed as to who is representing them on a local level, because like I said, those are the people that are going to be making the decisions that directly affect us here in San Antonio and Bear County. When it comes to commissioners court, I kind of in that same boat with Mr. Lara, I always get asked, what do commissioners do? Who are they? I have no idea. And I always tell people don't feel bad. Most people don't know who they are or what they do either. So part of a campaigning has been to try and educate people as to what the commissioners do, who they are and why it's so important. Being that they they deal with so much of our county revenue and our tax dollars. It's it's important that people are watching to see what they're doing. What are they spending their money on? So I always encourage people to go find the commissioners court website on the county page and you can actually watch the commissioners courts meeting. They're all archived and there's a nice little agenda so you can you can take a look and say, oh, OK, this this applies to something I'm interested in or where I live or that sort of thing. And you can you can watch that little segment of a video and you will learn so much by watching the commissioners courts meetings. I just think it's it's a wealth of knowledge that people really need to take advantage of because there's a lot that goes down goes on down at the courthouse and and it's very important for people to be involved and make their voices heard. I've been watching commissioners court meetings for years and it's been really nice in the last few months seeing so many citizens sign up to speak because that's something that happened. You know what happens here and there but not with the frequency that it has been in the last few months. And I think that's a good sign that people are realizing that the commissioners are there and the impact that they can have. So I'm always encouraging people to watch commissioners court sign up speak and ask questions because it's important what we what we that we hold them accountable for how they spend our tax dollars. Thank you so much for your answer. I would like to thank both of you for spending your evening with us today and best of luck to you on the election. Thank you. All right. Great. So now we will be moving over to the judicial races. I see one candidate here. Do we have the other one joining us as well or will will Justice Martinez be joining later? Justice Martinez will be joining us. I will give her a quick email and and see. Sure. No problem. Well, we can go ahead and keep on going. And when Justice Martinez joins us, we'll go back to her and have her introduce herself and everything like that. Josie, would you like to introduce who we have here on with us? Absolutely. The second round of conversations we would like to welcome Judge Amy Clark Meacham, candidate for Chief Justice of Texas Supreme Court, as well as Justice Rebecca Martinez, who will be joining us a little bit later, candidate for Chief Justice of the Fortress Court of Appeals. Thank you so much for having us here. I know that Justice Martinez is on the road tonight, actually doing an in-person event. It's been pretty rare. It's mostly been Zoom, but I know she was going to try and jump in, too. She's just trying to find, I think, good Wi-Fi and a good location. So she should be here soon. It's great to be here. Sure. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. So just as a quick explanation and refresher for those joining us, the Supreme Court of Texas is composed of the Chief Justice and Eight Justices. It's basically what they call the Court of Last Resort for civil matters in the state. And by statute, the court also has administrative control over the State Bar of Texas. Justice Martinez, who will be joining us shortly, is running for the Fourth Court of Appeals That court is composed of seven justices who hear both civil and criminal cases appealed from lower courts from 32 counties located across both South Texas as well as the Texas Hill Country. So, Judge Meacham, please tell us a bit about yourself and why you want to be the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. All right, sure. Thank you for having me here. Again, my name is Judge Amy Clark Meacham. I am a three term district court judge in Travis County, one of the highest level trial courts in the state. The presiding judge there of all civil and family courts. And just so you know, I've been on the bench since 2010 and a little bit following up on your civics lesson, because it can be confusing a little bit to voters. And so I there are district court benches at the trial level. And then there are intermediate courts, which is what the Fourth Court of Appeals is that Justice Martinez currently sits on and she's running for the chief position of that court. And then back up at the top, there are two high courts in Texas. They're only one of two states that do it that way. We have a Supreme Court of Texas, which is where all civil cases end up. But that also includes civil family probates, juvenile justice cases are civil under Texas law. Also, Department of Family Services and Protective Department of Family and Protective Services cases end up at the Supreme Court. And then there's another high court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. And that's where all criminal cases end up. It's confusing. There are nine seats on both courts. They are all statewide seats. And this year, you will on your ballot. And many people don't know what they're voting on. So I'm just taking a minute to step back and tell you what they are. You'll have seven races. We are actually five through eleven on your ballots. And they're all statewide seats. And so if you are a voter in Texas, you will vote on the Texas Supreme Court and you will vote on the Court of Criminal Appeals or you will have the opportunity to do that and vote in these important seats. So a little bit more about me with that background. I am running because I believe it is time for a new generation of judicial thought leaders to bring much needed fairness and balance to a currently monolithic court. It's been all Republican for the last twenty two years. The Chief Justice position has been held by a Republican for thirty two years. And so I think it's necessary on this court to have diversity of thought, diversity of opinion, to have discussion about the law and about what the law is. Yes, we interpret the law. Yes, we interpret statutes and we read the text. That's what every good judge does. But there needs to be just like there are at the U.S. Supreme Court and there needs to be healthy debate at the Texas Supreme Court about what the law is, what is fairness, what is justice, what the Constitution says and how we apply it in any given case with the facts and law in a specific case. One more little fact. Texas has never elected a woman Chief Justice to its highest court or one of nine states who has never elected a Chief Justice as a woman Chief Justice for the Texas Supreme Court. And I'm very proud to be the first woman in Texas history to run for this office. We need a Constitution. We need judges to respect the Constitution, protect protect the role of juries and address the economic barriers that too often prevent women and persons of color from seeking and obtaining justice. So I think it's important to not only explain these races to people. I know sometimes it makes people uncomfortable that we elect judicial and partisan races in Texas, but we can answer those questions and explain that too. But I think it's important to one, talk about the civics and to talk about the framing of this court and our better way forward for our state where we remain committed to equal justice under law. So thanks for having me here and I see Justice Martinez. Yes, welcome Justice Martinez. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. We joined right in time as we were doing kind of introductions and opening statements. So if you could just take a couple of minutes to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to be the Chief Justice of the Fourth Court of Appeals. Of course, thank you very much. Hello to my sister in law, Judge Amy Mecha. I'm glad that y'all have a chance to hear from her tonight. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. For those of you who don't know me, I am the Senior Associate Justice that currently serves you on the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals that sits here in San Antonio. I am running as the Democratic nominee for Chief Justice on the 2020 ballot in November. Hope you've been able to get out to vote early. And of course, tomorrow is the last day of early voting. And I look forward to continued service on the Fourth Court. I am again running for Chief Justice. What is that? What does that mean? And what is the main reason why Texas voters should pick me as opposed to my opponent? Certainly one critical reason from my own career experience that I believe most qualifies me for this position is a diverse and heightened perspective. Certainly a jurist is one expected to have knowledge and experience in the law. I'm a distinguished graduate of Boston University School of Law and a former law clerk. I joined the appellate court after 20 years of picking juries in civil and criminal courtrooms across South Texas. I have represented plaintiffs and defendants, individuals, families, corporate entities and the accused. I recognize the need to be very cognizant at every level of how we as members of the bar and bench contribute to the perception of unfairness and bias. My professional literacy and a diversity of cases has lent, I believe a heightened and much needed perspective to the appellate review process, which of course would further strengthen my judicial independence and more importantly the public's confidence in the court. I believe that I have the most relevant judicial experience in these uncertain times Texans deserve and experience justice to serve as Chief Justice as the senior associate justice again on the fourth court. I have served effectively for almost a decade with two Chief Justices and nine Associate Justices through four legislative sessions. I've collaboratively overseen five fiscal court budgets and have written over a thousand opinions during my tenure on the court. The Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court has appointed me to preside on Texas special courts of review to conduct the Nova review of decisions by the State Commission of Judicial Conduct as every predecessor of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals has offered. The Chief Justice must have the relevant judicial experience, knowledge, perspective and leadership skills to preside over and navigate the Fourth Court through the fiscal administrative and technological challenges facing Texas appellate courts now and into the next decade. Again, thank you for having me and I look forward to any questions. Thank you very much, ma'am. Our first question will be presented to Ms. Martinez, Justice Martinez, excuse me. We engage millennials and youth and and really encourage them to start voting. Everyone's aware of the presidential races. Some are aware of the Senate races. But what would your advice be as to why it's important for young voters to vote in judicial races? Well, I think, of course, the youth is a demographic of the electorate that both parties have tried to appeal to. But the Texas Tribune, I believe, just most recently had an article questioning the reasons why the youth of Texas and of America don't feel engaged enough to stand in line at a poll. It found that youth are informed. They're watching the news. They're politically engaged. But there's something about something that keeps from keeps them from actually voting and casting a vote. That the the article went on to say, as others do, recognizing that particularly Latino demographic of young voters. They're the highest number of potential eligible voters. And in five congressional districts in the country, three of them are in my judicial district. The 34th and 23rd are among them and the Texas 16th. The other two are in Florida and one in California, each with over almost 300 and almost 330,000 Latino eligible voters. And of course, if you include the entire demographic of those younger than 25, it is a very large share of eligible voters. What can we do as public servants to appeal to them? I think that public officials should be more of an ear than a mouth. For us to sit there and tell you what you should be concerned about, we should be more willing and able to to listen to what is or the critical issues for the youth. And I don't believe that there are any different than the rest of the community. We cannot certainly ignore the critical impact of the pandemic on the young community, but particularly those who have lost jobs, incomes, suffered a mental health decline and, of course, trying to just meet their basic needs. And so if the legislature or the executive or even the judicial branch don't appeal to them, no pun intended, to to be able to focus on those needs and provide access to justice, it's important for them to for our public officials to address those concerns. The other two big areas are education, of course, and worries about what the future holds. So we need to continue those challenges, address those challenges rather for students, staff and faculty, particularly now, who are going to be members of a fraternity of graduates and current students who are facing these challenges today. And they still suffer from the same disparities, both in economics, racism, tech barriers, they're now schooling from home. So we need to make sure that we address these issues for in large part because we need to increase their confidence that government will meet their needs both now and in the future. Thank you. Judge Meacham, same question for you as we go ahead, I was going to I thought I remembered it, but you can ask it again. That might be better for me. Go ahead. Thank you. Judge Meacham, same question as we engage millennials and young voters to be more civically involved, many of them are well aware of the presidential debate or the presidential elections, some of the Senate elections, but rarely of the judicial races. What would your advice be to those young voters as to why these judicial races are important to vote in? I think that is so vitally important as the parent three, one, who's almost a teenager and two teenagers. I want to make sure they're civically engaged. And I think sometimes that is missing currently in the education system and K through 12 is not enough civics. But one thing people need to know is we have three branches of government. We have an executive, a legislative and a judicial and it's the judiciary who sees people on their worst day. You may never in your whole life meet a legislator. You have to really be involved in government to want to meet a legislator. Unfortunately, people meet a judge when they don't want to meet them in many cases. You end up in courts on your worst days, also on your best days. Sometimes you get married by a judge. Oftentimes you end up in court when you're getting divorced or when you're arrested or when you get sued or when you have to sue someone. And so I would say that the importance of these races are already there. It should be baked in. The real hard thing is in ballots that are as long as Bear County's ballots that are as long as Harris County is is how you give voters information and how you give them the tools to know who these judges are. And I think we as a state do need to be better at voter information, giving voters information about judges, their judicial philosophies, almost like the League of Women Voters do, but making it more baked in than that, making it accessible for people to be able to find this information close to polling locations as they're as they're walking into polling locations where they can see what it is about these people, what they should know. And I think that's something we can do. It's achievable. It's not high in the sky. It's not some sort of academic and expensive program that would cost the state so much money. It's something we could actually do that would matter to people where they can see something about the people they're voting on right before they vote on them. So I'm excited about that thought. I also just I don't buy it that they aren't civically engaged. I think what 2020 is telling us, quite honestly, is that the young people are voting. They're going to vote. They're showing up this time and they may not show up. Sure, they may not show up at the same rate as every other group, but you build it. And they are showing up. And so I have a lot of faith in them and caring a lot about every single person on the ballot and they're going to show up this time. They're already doing it. Great. Thank you so much. So this is Texas's first election without down ballot voting, which means that voters now have to go through and pick each candidate individually. And this includes judicial races, which, like other races on the November federal election ballots, are partisan with a Democrat and a Republican running for each position. Judge Michem Yu, you mentioned this earlier, but Governor Abbott recently formed an exploratory committee to consider ending partisan judicial races. So how do you feel that ending would affect the health and the makeup of the judicial system? Here's my sort of quippy answer to that, is it is the worst way of electing judges except for all the others. And the truth is every way that you could select or elect judges has pros and cons. I would posit to you that what we have seen the last four years at the federal court level hasn't exactly been apolitical for people who think that a better system is an appointment system. I think we have four years of data from what has happened in these last four years that might show you something different. I think that partisan election of judges, yes, it makes people sometimes uncomfortable. But I had this conversation when I first ran and I was playing with the idea, well, maybe nonpartisan elections would be better because you would go out and people would feel better, at least, about their system of government. They'd feel like it was fair. But at the end of the day, it wouldn't be because what would really happen at that point is the special interests would just come in and they would only put money behind the one person they wanted and the only person who could even make it out of the pack would be the one person who could get money from the very people who just want that person elected. And you'd have to question whether that's a fair system at all. And then the state rep friend of mine when I was running back in the day said to me, but at least if you put a partisan moniker next to somebody's name, you know something about that. We just talked about how long these ballots are and how difficult it is to have young people engaged, at least when you go. You know something about the people you're voting on, not everything, but you know that and you know they're somewhat there. Maybe their philosophy, maybe their worldview, the party they identify with. And that gives you some piece of information. If you're not comfortable because you don't know enough, other than that, to not vote on them, then you don't have to vote in those races. But I would suggest to you that this is a better system because at the end of the day it's a check on big money special interests. Maybe not enough of a check, but it's at least something of a check. And as long as the two parties do their jobs to put forward qualified candidates to present maybe opposing legal philosophies, but both people who can do the job, they just might do it in a different way, then this system works. And I'm skeptical of any system that in the year 2020 wants to take away the right to vote for people because it is not the time, it is not the situation to be restricting people's ability to vote. I would add a few thoughts with that. So you know I've seen it all. I've been on the ballot a few times. My first race was in 2010. So at least for the last decade, I can share with you my experience and my perspective within my judicial district. So my judicial district is the largest in the state. It includes 19 house districts, all are part of nine state senatorial districts and all are part of eight U.S. congressional districts. I can refute any assumption held at least about my judicial appellate district that partisan elections are guided by top of the ticket dynamics that cause down ballot partisan sweeps quote unquote. Instead, I believe the demographics of each unique county, each one of the 32 that encompass Southwest Texas size of Pennsylvania, the contested races down ballot and immediately above my ballot of the state reps are really dictated by the campaign activity conducted by contested candidates up and down the ballot and the ballot share offered by each county not to mention the level of voter apathy that varies between gubernatorial and presidential election years. I think those dynamics better explain the results of judicial elections, a minimum in my district. But I will say that in terms of judicial selection, the current version of our Texas constitution is the product of thoughtful consideration. It's the sixth and current version of our Texas constitution. It's been amended a few times in its history. And so in considering what our constitution now reflects, which is, again, centuries of thoughtful debate, it enshrines our shared values that every Texan is guaranteed the fair and equal access to our courts. More importantly, the right of appeal and the right to elect and remove its judges through election, a system that history has proven has been tested to best achieve these values. San Antonio here, for example, so many citizens of San Antonio have fought to increase the opportunities for generations to come. We've seen the efforts of Willy Velasquez, who increased the number of registered Hispanics, formed a voting block without which state-wide and even national politicians could not win election. So I think as a candidate and a Latina, a first-generation individual, I'm the product of Willy Dolores Huerta, not just Sandra Day O'Connor, who is the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court and certainly our beloved Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose fight continues past 2020. Now I'm told I was the first mixed American to graduate from Boston University School of Law. I serve on the dean's advisory board. I've served for many firsts, the first Hispanic Federal Magistrate Judge in Texas, the first and second highest Hispanic appellate justices that were appointed by Governor Ann Richards. And so I think that we see so much opportunity available to us. What we're seeing now are the dynamics of not just the last four years, but the last 40 years in this country through the civil rights area I was born when Thurgood Marshall was on the United States Supreme Court. I graduated law school the year before Justice RBG was nominated and appointed by President Clinton. We've seen so much, but I think what Texans want to need to understand and you as voters is that you are members of a part of history that your behavior, your actions, your involvement, your advocacy are all going to form the threads of the fabric of not just San Antonio, but the fabric of this country. So if you were prepared to enter the political arena as astute candidates and maybe political operatives, you need to be indoctrinated to work together towards those shared values and the common good. You are the women and young men, the people of color who will aspire to lead and serve and should be more motivated, now more than ever, that institutions like government, the three equal branches of government, I'm a little biased, I think the judicial branch is the most important, but they're becoming increasingly diverse in gender and race. Yet inherently, we still are challenged by unconscious and conscious bias and even outdated assumptions about the role of women and minorities of every color. So I think y'all should take this opportunity, which I think this is the opportunity. We're on the advent of a time when firsts are now being succeeded by seconds and thirds and fourths. So we may have the first Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. We may have now, if elected as Chief Justice, first public court, dominated by Latinas, not just on my court, the fourth court, but also the 13th Court of Appeals. Those numbers are gonna continue to grow and we will start seeing less unfamiliar complexions, not just on the bench, but in the state house, in the White House. And so any outdated assumptions about men and women are thinking, I think that those times are changing and you are part of that generation. So let's focus on the important things about how we can improve, not just access to justice in a post pandemic and technological world, but also a member of computing where opportunities are open to you, but the most important opportunity and privilege that you have that has been fought and scraped for by generations that have preceded us is the right to vote. And so your voice is your vote and your vote is your strength. And so I think as the young people, the future leaders of this city, state, country is to take on that responsibility. It's an obligation, I believe, that you have for future generations to get involved. And the more you get involved, the more you'll see people that look like you that come from your backyards and you'll hopefully grow up in a generation where it's not a big deal to have women and people of color in power. These choices are made now. They need to be intentional. And I hope to see you at the polls because the time is now. Just on that, I just wanna add one thing because that was very inspiring, Justice Martinez. And I didn't say this at the beginning, but on the Democratic ticket alone, for those four seats that are up on the Supreme Court, I am running with a Latina, an African-American woman and an Asian-American woman. And the Supreme Court of Texas has never had an African-American woman. It's never had an Asian-American at all. And Justice Cicela Triana would be the first Democrat Latina who has elected statewide in the state if she is elected. And so it has some historic opportunities just in this year, in this bench. And so it's very exciting to be running with candidates, both the Supreme Court, both the Court of Criminal Appeals and on these intermediate courts that look like the changing face of Texas. We have finally made it to this point. And the judiciary now looks like the people who come in front of it and looks like the changing face of Texas. And we don't wanna go backwards to a system that would turn this election system that's finally getting us to the place we wanna be back to a room, a back room full of people appointed by the governor or even by the bar because that would inherently lead to a less diverse and less democratic system, small D democratic system. Thank you both for such wonderful responses. Judge Martinez, ma'am, how do you feel the court system in your role in it could impact structural inequities? Well, while I've mentioned to you the importance of recognizing the needs for us to change the way we view the world. Judges campaign in Texas, it's one of six states that actually elect their judges in a partisan race, right? Where we have a D and an R in front of our name. And of course, that seems to bring or draw assumptions about the official that sits in sitting in the robe on the bench and about how they're going to rule. Certainly we see it on the federal level and it's important that we be as informed as possible about not just our elected officials generally, but as it relates to the judiciary. It is important for us as judges and it's a very challenging recognition that again, we need to be less indifferent about our humanity. And that means that we must acknowledge that we are, we all suffer from some form of implicit bias and that can impact our judicial decision-making. And so if we don't acknowledge that, we cannot remove the threat that that bias somehow interferes with a fair and impartial decision-making. But that's very difficult, especially for a judge or a judicial candidate that's supposed to be out there and campaigning that I'm gonna be fair and impartial. And in fact, sometimes it feels they've some candidates might allow themselves to be invaded by words like liberal and conservative and judicial philosophies and all to try to influence someone's vote or even the opportunity for an appointment. I think that's the most difficult thing, but what one can only do is what I've been taught, right? To preserve, protect and defend those principles that are enshrined in our constitution. And so we need to be accused of being very ferocious and defending the rights that are enshrined in that constitution, the defender of women and the minorities, especially those demographics who've been deprived of equal access and due process of law. And I think that often occurs when our perspective leaves out the consideration about potential bias. And that's difficult to demand on colleagues who again are just a little bit uncomfortable of even having these uncomfortable conversations. But this is the time when we should invite civil discourse about issues that are race-based, that are gender-based, that in any way affect our judicial decision-making and depart from our oath of office. And so if we're gonna say that we're gonna provide and ensure equal access to justice regardless of race, color, creed or sexual orientation, we've got to mean it. We have to understand what those concepts are and understand where we've come from, right? Because I grew up in the 70s where the legal status of women, but for RBG, we'd still be in the 70s. So even though there are more women and more minorities on the bench, predominantly in urban communities, we still don't share equal dignity in both seeking and holding our judicial office. And I know though that with the confidence of the youth of being more informed that we can fully achieve such dignity when we see more women and minorities in office. It improves, I believe, the public's confidence in every institution. I certainly know as someone who graduated from law school and never saw a woman on the bench except for Sandra Day O'Connor. It's a delight and I also see that it's a somewhat of an inherent responsibility that I have. So when I have students in my courtroom and they're in awe because the portraits on the walls inside my courtroom are all old white men. They're all black and white. They're in awe when they see my bench in particular. There are seven women. It's the first all-female appellate court in the country that was established in 2005. And only since 2005, we've had a sparkling of two men. And we are currently an all-female court. There's five Latinas on the court and that just resounds so much for those who can now view what I didn't see coming out into the courthouse. It gives them aspirations to get involved. People are less divorced from politics when politics are more reflective of our community. But I also think that the political discord about political discord is essentially about as political as it has ever been, right? And our sentiment about the highest court often trickles down to state and local courts. And so we wanna make sure that the public is not disappointed in it. And that's the will that you need to have. And I think it's too far from the concerns of everyday Texans, particularly now. But I think it's a better explanation of what has been shared by our prior justices who share stories about how uninformed people generally are about the judiciary specifically. So often certainly humility, often it escapes professionals like attorneys. And when they choose to run for office, a run for the robe is often the default choice, but we want people to be engaged as public servants. So I think members of the judiciary and certainly there's two examples here on your call of public servants who want to continue to serve and embrace again what our mandate is, is to improve the public's confidence in the institution that is the judiciary. And so I'm proud to be a part of it. I'm proud to be on this ballot with so many women. If you look at your ballot, particularly in South Texas, you've got the president who's a male, followed by a woman, or another woman, maybe one senator or a count, although there's probably only two races on the ballot that don't include a female on some side. And so there's a real critical opportunity right now to change the face of government. And I think it only will improve the public's confidence in government. And again, I look forward to continued service on the court and to see so many others join in the ranks of the judiciary. Thank you. Justice Micho, how do you feel the court system and your role in it could impact structural inequities? So that's a great question. As Erin said at the beginning, the Chief Justice not only presides over the court, the Chief Justice presides over the judiciary and the entire judicial branch of government. And so it's a real opportunity from the very beginning with the legislature, I would deliver the state of the judiciary. And in that state of the judiciary, just like Justice Martinez mentioned, we need to talk about implicit bias and we need to make sure we put it forward an initiative that requires an implicit bias training for every judge in the state. Right now it's not required and we can do that right away. I think we need to have a discussion and I need to say from that August podium that Black Lives Matter and we need to talk about bill reform. It'll be a new day in Texas if I win this race, but we need to have these hard conversations because if 2020 has told us nothing else, it has ripped off the scab in some respects and many of these inequities that still exist in American society and in our justice system and we can do better. And even though I'm not the criminal court judge as the Chief Justice, we can set the tone. We can talk about the things that make us uncomfortable and we can be better because you can always be better. As Justice Martinez knows, we've both been doing this a long time now, but we can always be better. Judicial training is part of the job and making sure that you are aware of any bias that you have, making sure that society is aware that our justice system knows we can do better and that we can merit fairer, more balanced, more equitable justice for all people moving forward. I think that is top of mind for me and I am excited about the opportunity to make that statement to Texans and to the legislature and to deal with those in this legislature in January because we've got a lot of work to do. 2020 has shown us we've got a lot of work to do and I think the voters are about to put us in a position where we need to get started. Great, thank you so much for those answers. I know Justice Martinez, you have to travel to another event so we can jump right into any closing comments you may have and again, thank you so much for being here and for incredibly insightful comments and answers. Well, thank you very much. I wish I could stay a little longer. I would just direct for any further information about me or my campaign or my bio, just go to Rebecca with 1C, the number 4chief.com. Please reach out at any time if I could be of service to you in any way. Just reach me at my Gmail address at justicerebecca again with 1C. Martinez at Gmail and I'd be delighted to continue to visit with you. Any opportunity for me to encourage you to go out and vote and become more engaged. And of course, as someone who's on the board of the new Women's Campaign School at UT Laws LBJ School of Public Policy, please I invite you to go onto the website and just Google it and we'd be delighted to have you join a cohort of bipartisan women working to become the next, to get off the bench and get into the arena and we'd be delighted to have you. So please apply for our next class. That's gonna be opening soon. And so again, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here and hope you stay healthy and hopeful and my best to my sister colleagues that are also on the ballot, including Judge Meacham and so many others. I'm just again, very proud to be on this 2020 ballot that I think is an example and clear vision of the next century in Texas. So thank you again, Josie, Erin and Susan and of course everybody at Nowcast SA and everyone in move, I'm very proud to have been one of the founding advisory boards of move when we came into San Antonio and now we're spreading across South Texas and delighted to see your actions and advocacy across Texas and across the country. So my blessings to you. Thank you very much and signing off now. Take care of yourselves. Thank you so much and thank you again for joining us. Take care, bye bye. So Judge Meacham, would you like to give some closing comments? Sure, I want to thank move and Nowcast SA for having me here. It is great campaigning throughout the state and getting an idea of different races. I enjoyed just being a spectator about your commissioners race. I enjoyed that when I learned about different communities and what's happening in those different communities. It's been one of the best things about running statewide and I sometimes feel like we've missed it a little bit in the Zoom world. So thank you for letting me be with you tonight and tell you about the sometimes least exciting races on your ballot. And so it's important that we give people an opportunity to learn about us and us to learn about you. So I would just say this. We all need to find the courage this year to stand up for our democracy and democratic institutions. I have three times raised my right hand to the constitution of this state in the United States and said, so help me God that I would protect the constitution, preserve, protect and defend both of them. And I think in the most consequential election of our lifetime, I think we all feel that. I'm asking the voters to do something bold. I know I don't look like my general election opponent and the men who have previously held that office. I think I'm making a powerful statement for women and the law and our state in 2020. And so thank you so much for having me here. I would like us all on November 3rd, 2020 to get back to an America as good as it's promised. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Justice Meacham. Thank you for your time and best of luck to you on your election. All right, so this concludes our event for tonight. Thank you again to Judge Meacham, Justice Martinez for being here, as well as Ms. Christine Hortix running for Bear County Commissioner, precinct three and Mr. Gabriel Lara running for precinct two. Thanks to the reliable roof revolutionaries for helping co-host this. Josie, they can follow you all on social media, right? You all have Facebook, Instagram, maybe Twitter. Yes, you can follow us at reliable revolutionaries SA on Facebook and also at our website, reliablerevolutionaries.com. Great, yes, and Move Texas is also online at movetexas.org as well as at Move Texas on all social medias. In fact, if you go over to our Instagram tonight, we're having a big voter event, kind of historic I think over in Houston at their 24 hour polling location for Harris County. It'll be a drive-in vote and concert with one of my favorite childhood rappers, Bun B. So feel free to hop on over to Instagram for that. And then I think Charlotte Ann from Nowcast SA would like to say a little word. I just wanna encourage everybody to vote if you haven't voted yet, or even if you have voted, tell a friend about all of the amazing resources at Nowcast SA, including the unbelievably wonderful polling place wait time tracker that was put up in part by Move and Iris. And so you can check the wait time at polling places before you go vote. And we have an early voting polling place map that tells you the closest place to vote. And we have all sorts of other questions answered at NowcastSA.com. All right, thank you Charlotte Ann and thank you everyone for joining us. Have a good evening. Thank you, have a good evening.