 Good morning. I'm so glad to be here with Johnna Ferguson from the Champlain Valley League of Women Voters. Johnna, thanks for joining us today. Thank you Lauren Klein. So I know that the league has been working hard to make sure people's ballots count and today is the 20th of October and there are some deadlines for folks who want to mail in their ballots, correct? That's right. This Saturday we is the if you want to vote by mail you need to get it in this week by Saturday. This has been the advice of our postmaster and also of our Vermont Secretary of State. So if you if you miss that deadline you can still take that mail-in ballot to your town clerk or of course vote in person but if you prefer to mail it in this is the week. So October 24th would be the deadline for mailing in your ballots. Yes. So tell us about the work before we get very specific about what people need to know. Tell us about the work the league has been doing over the past couple months or I guess through the primary season as well. Right. Well it's been a shift for us to reach out to voters. We want to do everything we can to support people to to vote confidently and to know how to be registered and where they can vote and all that information. They want to research their candidates. We have a non-partisan voting guide so we've had a shift. We're not meeting people in person. We've had a wonderful relationship with Front Poach Forum. They're sharing our messages twice a month and from that we're also hearing back from people what their further questions are and we just really appreciate the media without us often or also like sharing messages so that people can vote confidently in these different conditions that we're experiencing this year. So I understand you also did a project with the Department of Corrections for folks that are in prison helping them vote. That's true. We're really excited about that. In Vermont it is legal for people in prison to vote and it makes a lot of sense because you want people to feel a part of society and to have their heads about what they're going to their life when they're out and being a positive part of Vermont. So with a generous grant from the Johnson Family Foundation, Bleak member Madeleine Mott headed up a project where we've prepared DVDs that can be shown to the incarcerated to help them step through the process of registering to vote and voting. They vote in their hometowns. That's their address that they vote from not where they are incarcerated. And you also translated your voting in Vermont brochure. Is that right? Yes that's another great project. Again I want to credit Madeline Mott who headed that up. We have it translated we have a voting in Vermont pamphlet that's been really great. We love handing it out. People appreciate it. It's just a quick summary of a lot of things that people want to know about voting and it's now available also in Chinese and Nepali and Somali. Yeah I'm gonna forget the other one. Somali yeah okay that's it. So since this is going to air mostly the week before the election, what happens if people have not received their ballot in the mail? I understand that everyone was mailed about it but what if you didn't get it? What should you do to make sure you can vote? You should immediately contact your town clerk. They know that they know whether or not you're registered and they can help you make a plan to get that ballot to you ahead of time. And if you go into yes so if you're advising folks to mail their ballots by the 24th of October where can people and they don't do that where's the best place for someone to drop off their ballot? Do they have to do it in their own town or can they do it in a drop box or how what do you suggest? Thank you for asking. You can't just drop your ballot off in the nearest drop box of where you perhaps are at work or away from your residence. You need to use the official ballot drop box that belongs to where you will be voting. So this is another place where you can contact your town clerk or look it up on the Secretary of State's site. And what happens if you um well I guess there are just so many questions but so let's say you get your ballot at home and you don't use it and you decide that you're going to go into the polling place on November 3rd to vote. I understand there's something called a provisional ballot. What happens when I go and I haven't cast my ballot by vote? I mean by mail. That's a great question. So if you've received your ballot and you're planning on voting in person the best advice is to hold onto that ballot and bring it with you when you go to vote because if you arrive to vote and you don't have the ballot with you that was sent to you they're going to need to ask you to sign an affidavit that you have not already voted because everybody only gets to vote once and the provisional ballots I think would come up in other circumstances where there's a question about your registration but if you come to the polls and your registration is clear but they say where is your provisional ballot you will need to sign an affidavit that you have not already voted. All right and then what about voter registration? We're pretty progressive in Vermont you can register even on the day of voting as I understand. Is that still possible? That is still possible. You can register online at I would go to mvp.vermont.gov That stands for my voter page or I like to think most valuable person that's you when you vote so mvp.vermont.gov and you can sign in and check your registration status if you're already voted if you can check where your ballot has mailed in but there's also a big button for if you are not yet registered to vote where you can do that online you will need to submit a copy of your ID and your Vermont official ID is best but you can also use other forms of identification that they list. So I imagine that if I do go to the polling place there's going to be not only a line but a line that's six feet apart and a polling place it doesn't allow more than a certain number of people in is that would that be safe to assume? That's safe to assume they we want to observe all the recommendations the governor has made for keeping Vermont safe and healthy during this pandemic time so when you go to the polls in person you will need to be wearing a mask just like you should anywhere indoors because that's the governor's guideline and you will be there there could be a line which is one of the reason that we're encouraging people to consider voting early by mail or by dropping their ballot off if you want to avoid that and just just to go back to something you said these ballot boxes I'm only familiar with a box that there might be outside of city hall but you mentioned there might be other boxes and people really shouldn't use them right so you want to be sure that you're only dropping your ballot off in an official official place that your town clerk has specified I know for example that Jericho has a free standing box that meets the secretary of state's requirements the town clerk has set up where you can drop your ballot off I live in south burlington and there's a drop slot that is shared with where we can drop off our tax forms securely and that's all clearly labeled at the secretary of state site and really your town clerks and city clerks in vermont are so helpful that you can call them they will give you helpful accurate information so I know that um the league clearly has been interested in voting for 100 years it's 100 years this year funny um so this is a celebration of the year where women were enfranchised in that way although I understand it took vermont a few extra months to figure it out once that was right and even though um we had the amendment in which certainly enabled white privileged women to vote it took a while to really get that vote in the hands of all the women of color as well so are you worried about voter suppression in vermont I am not um but it is something to watch watch out for we see in other states um where other states have closed down the number of voting locations have added additional um id requirements um and made other things that will make done other things to make voting more difficult more um intimidating um we've seen in a study in 2016 that voters of color waited in lines that were twice as long as um as the white voters and that's that's just not really encouraging all voters in a in a fair way so in your observation of how the secretary of state and the clerks have handled the vote in vermont so far and given the primary and given what's happening in the general election what grade would you give vermont I would give vermont an a plus but if someone has experienced those difficulties I hope they will reach out to the league or to the secretary of state because that's not how we do things here how do they get in touch with you at the league oh um you can reach us at league at l w v o v t dot org wonderful and are there any other final things that you would like people to remember if they're in the process of voting now yes um if you are looking at some of these names on your ballot and you're like who is this and what do I think of them I'd really like you to encourage you to consider voting guides like vote 411 which the league puts out it's non-partisan put your address in and you'll see everyone that's on your ballot and a little bit of information about them we've also given each candidate a place to tell us a little bit about themselves um also um you know your good media sources and vermont that you're familiar with often also put out information about candidates so well and of course town meeting television is interviewed almost all of them so that's right we have all of those interviews on our site at ch17.tv and on our youtube channels I really depend on that for my local candidates because it gives me a really full picture and I appreciate that yeah well we're excited we're also doing election night results on election night the third so I think results are going to be slow because I think the turnout's going to be high don't you I do think it's going to be high in fact we had a um message from our secretary of state on twitter that um believe half of vermonters have say this right of the number of voters who voted in 2016 half that number have already voted now in vermont by voting early or through mail so yes I'm expecting a a good turnout and well it makes me happy yeah that and just to say vermont has rules that allows the clerks to start counting those absentee ballots now right in advance of the election day yes that will and that will really help us get our vote counts our election results on on time although some town clerks are saying they're going to do all the counting the day of they feel like they have the staff that's great I know that some vermonters worry about their mail and ballot is it going to be counted so early that it will not be included that's not the case no because they'll mark off your vote on the voter registration rules right right and then your ballot will be put in a secure location and then it will be run through the count close to the election or on election day yeah I um I find it interesting that there are states that have not made provisions for early counting I mean big populist states and I can imagine it could be several days before we have results from some of those places right it could even be weeks but it's good to know that everywhere that elections happen just like here we have our justice of the piece from several parties the process is monitored no one is off in a room by themselves with ballots messing with them so even if we have to wait a week or more I feel confident that the the count will be good yeah and I think that that is very important to underscore the integrity of the voting process in Vermont and in the United States it is pretty tried and true we have been doing it a long time and there may be some irregularities but I think those are few and far between very very much so minuscule well John thank you so much for joining us and for your work to grease the wheels of democracy please give our best to your co-colleagues at the league and thanks for joining us today thank you so much lauren glenn