 Hello, I'm Layla Ipsa, host of CalTV Election Desk. With four days left until the election, it is safe to say that this is the home stretch. Candidates are making their closing arguments and people are showing up in record numbers to vote. One group specifically, younger voters. New information from the data firm Target Smart shows that more than 6 million voters under 30 have already casted a ballot. This time in 2016, that number was only 2 million. So joining me now to talk about youth voter turnout and his thoughts on the upcoming election is the former secretary of labor and Cal Professor Robert Reich. Professor Reich, thanks so much for joining me. So jumping right into it, with a surge in mail-in ballots, we may not know who our president is on election night. So if we don't, when do you think we will? Quite frankly, we're not going to know on election night because as you said, we're gonna have so many mail-in ballots, so many absentee ballots. And at the same time, there is likely to be some confusion given the number of mail-in ballots. There's likely to be some contested ballots. I would hope that we know by maybe November 4th or 5th. Let's talk about voters. You're a professor at Cal, so you're constantly engaging with younger voters. So are you seeing a sense of urgency from your students to get out to the polls? My observation is that younger voters are more actively involved than ever before. I just look at the midterm elections of 2018. Young voters really were voting in record numbers. And I think that this election is gonna show the same thing, if not more. Let's be clear, young voters have a lot of other things on their minds as well. But nonetheless, politics is beginning to show up in their minds. And I've seen this trend. I've been teaching for many years. Lele, I don't even wanna tell you how many years. But I'm privileged to teach this young generation of students who I think it's fair to say are more publicly spirited, more aware, more curious, more dedicated to improving society and the world than any generation I have ever taught before. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely great to see younger generations out there and sort of leading the charge. So what do you think that activism will look like after the election? Here's what my hope is. That people don't say, well, at least I voted and maybe I've got the people I want into office and that's the end of it. No, voting is the beginning of it. That is, when you have an election and you get people you want into office, even if you do, you need to continue to organize and mobilize to make sure that they do good things. Yeah, final question here. What's your closing argument to people that are saying that they're still not gonna vote in this year's election? After experiencing COVID and wildfires linked as they are to climate change, after experiencing the attacks on our democracy, after experiencing systemic racism and the consequences of police brutality, after experiencing all this, if people don't feel that they wanna get involved in politics, certainly it's up to them. But let's face it, there've been a lot of provocations that are very personal, very intimate. The Supreme Court could easily take away a woman's right over her body, over her choices, take away same-sex marriage, take away a lot of things we take for granted. So these political issues are not just abstractions, they have a direct bearing on people's lives and young people's lives for the next 40, 50, 60 years. Wise words right there, Professor Reich, thanks again for joining me. All right, that's gonna do it for me tonight. I'm Lely Ipsa, make sure that you vote and I'll see you Monday for a preview of our election night coverage.